


The Journey to Caerleon

by claritylore



Series: The Caerleon Series [1]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Angry Jack, Angst, Collaboration, Crack Treated Seriously, Cute Kids, Feels, First Time, Hurt Ianto Jones, Hurt/Comfort, Ianto Jones & Toshiko Sato Friendship, Kid Fic, Learning to Parent, M/M, Original Character(s), Sexual Tension, Sick Ianto Jones, The Alien Device Did It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:15:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 37,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29162526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/claritylore/pseuds/claritylore
Summary: When a piece of alien technology manages to literally stick Jack and Ianto together, it gives them a chance to finally talk through their mutual anger about the incident with Lisa.But that’s not all it does...
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Series: The Caerleon Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2140731
Comments: 19
Kudos: 73





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ARCHIVE NOTE: This fic is not wholly mine! It was written in collaboration with Mav (maverick0324) who I have subsequently lost touch with. Mav, if you're out there, hope you don't mind me posting this up again! 
> 
> This fic was originally written back in 2007 on LJ, now rescued and reposted here for safekeeping. 
> 
> I'll post one part a day of this (and its sequel) until all the parts are up, so stay tuned!

It was with a quiet dignity that Ianto methodically did as he had been ordered to do; assisting the team in cataloguing every piece of alien technology stored away in the bowels of the Hub. Jack wasn't sure what he had expected but it seemed odd to him somehow.  
  
Part of him wanted Ianto to look suitably penitent, to go about the task assigned to him like a reluctant prisoner doing punishment. Yet he showed no such signs of that. Ianto just steadily entered, strode over to them all and asked what was required of him, as if he hadn't had to incinerate his dead cybernetic girlfriend less than a week ago. Then he got to work with the minimum of fuss.  
  
The only telltale sign of the anger which still had to be raging inside him came as Jack dropped a sharp warning that if they found anything else suspicious down there that was not on the itineraries, Ianto might just find himself at the wrong end of Jack's gun. Ianto gave him a glare made of ice and fire, hard enough to wound, and an irreverent, ‘Sir,’ before turning away to start categorising things with the rest of them.  
  
Toshiko looked distinctly uncomfortable. Gwen looked pitying. Owen looked contemptuous. Jack, well, he had a feeling that if anybody looked, he'd just look angry. That wasn't the whole story though. He was also intrigued. Incredibly so. That this young man, who had seemed so deceptively slight in frame and gentle in manner until a mere few days ago could have defeated him in every possible way seemed completely unbelievable. Ianto had outsmarted him in keeping such a threat right under his nose all that time, then he'd outfought him and left him with a split lip that wouldn't go away, and to cap it all he had never once backed down. Jack had never experienced anything like it. Usually people folded under his command like confetti underfoot. They accepted that he knew best because most of the time, he damned well did. He'd been in command of enough units and operations to be certain of that.  
  
This time had been no different. He had been right all along about this Lisa being too far gone to be saved. But Ianto still hadn't acknowledged the fact that Jack had been right. He still remained completely impenitent.  
  
Despite this, Ianto was not out of a job. If anybody else had done what Ianto did, Jack felt certain he would have Retconned them into the last decade already. He had no idea why he hadn't. All Jack knew was, when he looked at Ianto, he didn't feel only anger and mistrust and betrayal, as he supposed he should. He felt an odd sort of intrigue and maybe even admiration. All this time, the cute kid in the suit, who served them coffee and slipped around the base unheard, had been the most dangerous one of them all; a logistical genius. He’d conned them all and hadn’t broken a sweat, and he had done it all for love. If hiding his converted girlfriend underneath their feet hadn’t have been so potentially dangerous to them all, and to the entire earth, Jack might have thought Ianto’s actions kind of poetic.  
  
So Jack kept an eye on him covertly, watching as he answered the subdued questions coming from the others whenever they found something they couldn’t identify. He could tell Ianto sensed their discomfort around him, and guessed he probably felt a little of the same, but he kept his manner entirely professional, not even rising to counter Owen’s whining and insults for once. He was a picture of civility and, Jack noted, was being particularly considerate of Toshiko, although he didn’t know why that might be.  
  
Time wore on, more and more items were checked off their lists as being both known to Torchwood and being non-dangerous. Owen’s whining was getting louder and more persistent and Gwen was starting to yawn. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. If Ianto had managed to hide a _Cyberman_ of all things inside his base, his home, as a responsible leader Jack had a duty to go and see what other surprises might be lurking down there. The only reason he never had before was because he had trusted Ianto to see to that.  
  
Obviously that had turned out to be a bad move.  
  
The thing was, so far there was nothing out of the ordinary. He hadn’t really expected anything dangerous to show up. The whole thing was more just intended as a challenge to Ianto; to prove he wasn’t hiding anything else down that; to prove he could be trusted again in time. So far so good.  
  
Then Toshiko uncovered something which seemed to puzzle Ianto. He was at the opposite end of the room, but out of the corner of his eye, he watched Ianto check his clipboard and kneel down to inspect it closer. It was a large metallic object, shaped like a giant paperweight, with an odd surface that made anything reflected in it look like it was fizzing somehow. On one side there were some carvings and what could be buttons, though he couldn’t really tell from that distance.  
  
Jack was distracted momentarily by Gwen, asking him to double check something on her list. The next time he looked, he was half blinded by a burst of light, like a photograph had been taken, and heard Ianto gasp and curse. When his vision cleared, he saw Ianto was now holding the large device in his hands, and that the surface seemed to have waves of energy sparking around it and it was humming, like it had suddenly come to life and was powering up. Ianto was grimacing.  
  
Quick as a flash Jack ran over and pulled Toshiko back, out of the way, throwing her into Owen’s arms.  
  
‘Drop it!’ he yelled.  
  
‘Can’t!’ Ianto gasped. ‘Can’t... Aah!.’ It flashed again and the power seemed to rise a notch. ‘Can’t get my hands free. They’re... stuck.’ His shoulders shook with the effort of trying to pull away.  
  
‘Damn it!’ Jack looked around for something that might break it but it looked too sturdy. So he took a breath and grabbed it himself on the other side, hoping to pull it off him.  
  
Nothing happened when he did and in another few seconds it powered up another notch. So he hurriedly moved around behind Ianto, pressed against his back and tried to push it free of his hands.  
  
Gwen’s voice warning him not to rang his ears as he pushed. But Jack suddenly felt an enormous jolt right the way through his body, and then a huge explosion of light behind his eyes. He gasped and tried to pull back. His hands wouldn’t move and his palms felt warm and tingly.  
  
The device slowly stopped powering up and calmed down to a low hum. Jack didn’t realise he was panting for breath until he heard Ianto doing the same. The man snuggled between him and the giant paperweight, or whatever it was, sagged back a little, resting his head back on Jack’s shoulder. As the device they were holding up started to grow heavy, Ianto started to sink downwards. Jack had no option but to go with him.  
  
They ended up in a strangely comfortable position, with the alien device resting on the floor, Ianto sitting with his legs either side of it, and Jack pressed right against him, legs either side of him in a parallel. It might have seemed strange had Jack not felt so lightheaded and weak. The rest of the team were immediately trying to figure out what to do, but aside from warning them not to touch it in case they got stuck too, Jack couldn’t find it in himself to do anything. He was too sluggish.  
  
Fortunately Owen was already on the case, inspecting the sticky residue solidifying under and around their hands, and Toshiko had gone to find something to scan it with. Gwen remained behind for moral support, telling them they’d figure out what it was and how to get them free. Jack just nodded at her words and left them to it.  
  
At first Ianto seemed to have fallen asleep against him. Jack couldn’t get a rise out of him. Then he jerked awake and asked what was going on.  
  
‘We’re stuck to this, whatever the hell it is. You picked it up, remember? Now we’re both stuck.’ Jack realised he sounded pissed off saying that, even though inside he didn’t feel it all that much.  
  
‘Oh.’ Ianto shuddered and the sensation went all the way through the both of them. ‘Sorry I... I didn’t know this would happen.’  
  
‘You don’t know what this thing is?’  
  
He shook his head. ‘No. It’s got an inventory entry but it’s blank. I’ve never seen it before.’  
  
‘I thought you said you knew what everything in the archives was.’  
  
‘Well, given the size of the archives and the state they were in before I got here, I believe a bit of leeway where that is concerned would be more than adequate, Sir.’  
  
A pause and then, ‘Do you always talk like that?’  
  
Jack supposed that Ianto’s glare was enough of an answer for him in that regard. It took Tosh and Owen entirely too long to come back with the necessary medical and technological instruments to run their tests, but return they finally did.  
  
‘Right, just a bit of this...’ Tosh muttered as she got a sample of the viscous liquid and placed it in a petri dish and under a microscope. She fiddled with the knobs while Owen tried to pull their hands apart.  
  
‘That is my skin you are currently ripping at, in case you couldn't tell.’ Jack winced, Owen’s scalpel digging into the flesh of his palm as Owen tried to cut the matter off.  
  
‘Right. Sorry.’ Owen tried to re-fix his position but the rift alarm set him off.  
  
‘Fuck!’ Jack jerked his hand as Owen sliced into it again, pulling an unsteady Ianto into his lap.  
  
‘Captain, I believe this definitely falls under harassment...’ Ianto said, squirming against Jack’s crotch.  
  
‘Well, perhaps but from the way it looks it seems I'm the one being harassed and I must say, I don't mind your methods at all Mr. Jones.’ Ianto glared and Jack mentally added another point to his inner tally board as he watched the others hedge between the alarm and them. ‘Go answer the damn alarm. It's not like we can get into any trouble.’  
  
Gwen's worried glance at the two of them as well as Owen’s snort went a long way to reminding him about Ianto’s promise to kill him, but all miraculous conditions considered, Jack felt he would weather the time with Ianto, if not well, then at least alive.  
  
The two of them sat there together in silence before the weight of it began to get to Jack. He softly began whistling a tune that he had seen on a recent movie, a rather annoying tune that had the ability to annoy others within instants. Ianto himself was slowly sitting upon a growing volcano of ire before finally exploding, ‘Would you just shut the bloody fuck up?’ His voice strained and his face bright red.  
  
Jack grinned and found that Ianto didn't look so bad flushed red and panting. ‘Well, I sure as hell am not planning on sitting her in abject silence while we wait for our heroes to finish whatever the fuck they're doing to rescue us.’  
  
Ianto rolled his eyes at Jack’s childish attitude, wishing that they could just weather this bit of unpleasantness in a professional-like silence. But then, that required Jack to be professional and Ianto knew that the man, if he was anything, was not professional.  
  
‘How did you do it?’  
  
‘What?’  
  
‘You know what.’  
  
‘I’m afraid I don’t, Sir.’ He managed to make the final word hiss with unexpressed distain.  
  
The sound went straight down Jack’s spine and curled his toes. Obviously Ianto was going to make him fight for the information, or at the very least, beg. ‘How did you get her out of Torchwood London? How did you get her into my Base? How did you hide her from us for so long without giving anything away?’  
  
The glare that had been fixed on Ianto’s face since they had been left alone softened a little and he just looked incredibly tired. ‘You’d be amazed what you can accomplish out of necessity. I did what I had to do.’  
  
‘Is that all you’re going to tell me?’  
  
A terse silence met that question.  
  
‘Ianto... look... you know what could have happened if she got loose. She wasn’t herself. Would the Lisa you knew really have killed Dr. Tanasaki? Or that student?’  
  
He could feel the internal war with the two concepts - Lisa his lover, Lisa the killer - in the way Ianto at first stiffened and had to fight to relax again. Being pressed against him, Jack could feel every move his body made, whether conscious or unconscious.  
  
Truth be told, he was beginning to enjoy being stuck there, in some strange way. There was no way he’d ever get to talk to Ianto like this otherwise; to feel his reactions like a lie detector; to be pressed against this strange creature that looked like a kitten, yet hid the claws of a tiger, and who had taken him so completely and utterly by surprise. A better chance to understand Ianto, and to comprehend his own inability to fire him, he was certain would never come. Therefore he was determined to make the best of it.  
  
‘I don’t feel too good,’ Ianto mumbled, frowning. ‘My hands feel tingly and warm and... and my chest feels tight.’  
  
‘Don’t worry, they’ll get us out of this when they can. If this alien tech, whatever the hell it is, was meant to harm us it would have done so already. We’ll be fine.’  
  
Ianto nodded and relaxed a little into him. ‘Jack, you know... I...’  
  
‘What?’  
  
The courage to say what he had been about to say seemed to flee him momentarily. ‘Nothing.’ Ianto sighed and tried again. ‘I didn’t mean to put you all in danger. That was never my intention. I... didn’t mean to hurt you. Any of you.’  
  
Jack gave him a nod but didn’t reply. It seemed better that way.  
  
They spent a few minutes in silence, listening to the soft hum of the alien device, watching the strange shimmering surface move back and forth like waves.  
  
Then Ianto took in a deep breath and sighed just as hard. ‘Why didn’t you fire me?’ he asked.  
  
Jack leaned back against the closest archive stand and let that question slip through his mind. Why had he kept Ianto? ‘The easiest answer to give you would be you make a damn good coffee, already know the filing system and at least I don't get slapped with a lawsuit when I stare at your ass.’ He could feel Ianto stiffen and then relax and was surprised to see something slightly resembling a smile on his face.  
  
‘But probably more closer to the truth, you not only hid yourself from us, you conned me.’ He gave a dry laugh and shook his head, ‘That hasn't happened in quite a long time and I’d hate to think it's because I'm getting old. But you're familiar with the phrase “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer”? Well, we may not be enemies Ianto, but I’d much rather have you in here than out there.’ And that was the truth. Sure he could retcon Ianto but that would be a waste. ‘Your abilities, it would be a shame to lose them when you've obviously got not only the skills to hide a cyberconversion unit inside Torchwood, but to actually change it to be a medical unit. Hell Ianto, that takes some fucking brains...’ Jack paused and looked over at Ianto who was looking back with a perplexed sort of clouded expression on his face. ‘The answer’s a bit muddled but...‘  
  
‘No, I get it... it’s no one thing that made you keep me. I got that.’ Ianto tried to move his hand, intending to run it through his hair compulsively before he realised it was still connected to the alien device. ‘I lost everything,’ he said quietly, no sadness to his voice, no regret, just a statement of fact. ‘I didn't just lose a lover. I lost all of my friends, my work, my home, my understanding of the world and the universe as I knew it, my safety... I lost everything. So if it seems a bit crazy to you to try and keep someone you've loved alive despite the condition they were in... Well, let’s say you must have a whole fucking lot more clarity than me.’ Ianto’s voice quieted down and they both lapsed into silence.  
  
‘I didn't say I didn't understand, I just think it was poor judgement for not telling us...’  
  
‘Could you have saved her?’  
  
‘What?’  
  
‘If I’d have told you, could you have saved her?’ Ianto’s voice was harder now, pressing the issue and Jack frowned at how it sounded.  
  
‘No, there was nothing we could have done...’  
  
‘Then I did the right thing.’  
  
‘Oh, the right thing? Putting yourself, your colleagues, the fucking world at risk to save the woman you love?’  
  
Ianto just turned and looked at Jack coolly. ‘And you wouldn't do the same?’  
  
No matter how hard he tried, Jack couldn’t answer that one. His voice got trapped in his throat. He wanted to tell him, no he wouldn’t, that he had more sense than that. But too many faces of lovers past told him that he was just as much a fool when he was in love as anyone else, and he’d pulled quite a few crazy stunts in his time as well.  
  
It irritated him that Ianto could obviously see right through him and knew the answer without him saying anything.  
  
‘So you have loved, then? Good. Then you know how it feels. I hope none of them got sliced up by machines and killed before your eyes,’ Ianto snapped, bitterly.  
  
‘Not exactly. One...’ Jack paused to clear his throat, not sure whether he could bear to share such a painful memory with him for the sake of making peace with Ianto, ‘one... was tortured to death in front of me. We were just kids but we were stupidly in love. It was my fault we were captured. He died and they let me go. He died badly... like you can’t imagine. And I never knew why I didn’t. I never knew why they let me go and not him.’  
  
‘Who?’  
  
‘Monsters.’ His voice cracked a little as he spoke. ‘Real monsters. Not the kind of monster you think I am.’  
  
Ianto swallowed hard. ‘You know I didn’t mean that,’ he said, almost inaudibly before shaking his head with more than a little incredulity. ‘Why are you telling me this?’  
  
‘Because we’re not so different. We’ve both lost people we loved; had them taken from us in cruel ways. You may not believe me but I know what you’re going though. The guilt, it eats away at your insides. It will poison you if you let it. You have to let it go. Look, you hate me because you think it will help get rid of it. That it’ll give you a purpose. But you have to trust me when I tell you that, it won’t. Hating makes it worse. Lisa was dead long before I ever met her. The Cybermen did that. Not me.’  
  
‘I...’ He grimaced, eyes pressed tightly shut. ‘I... know that.’  
  
‘Yes, I think you do. Now you have to believe it.’  
  
‘I'll get around to that. In time,’ Ianto said softly, as he shifted on the ground, trying to make everything a bit more comfortable.  
  
‘Don't let it get too late. Mourn her for who she was, but don't let it drag you down or else you'll find yourself fifteen years later stuck in the middle of something that you don't like and never knowing how you got there.’  
  
‘Like you?’  
  
Jack paused. ‘Yes,’ was the only thing he said. The two lapsed back into silence, Ianto feeling another wave of pain and nausea wash over him. He tried to take a steadying breath, but it hurt, his lungs burning when he breathed in.  
  
‘You said that if this device was supposed to hurt us it would have done so already, right?’  
  
‘Yeah, why what’s wrong?’  
  
Ianto turned his head, wanting to find a cool place to rest his forehead. ‘No it's nothing, I think I'm coming down with something is all.’  
  
Silence lapsed between them once more before Ianto finally turned to Jack. ‘Thank you, by the way.’ Jack looked a bit perplexed and a bit unsure of where Ianto was going with this. ‘For doing what I couldn't.’ He shook his head slowly, ‘I couldn't have pulled the trigger and I needed to.’  
  
Jack smiled ruefully, because yes, in the end it probably would have been better if Ianto had but that's not how it had happened. He gently shoved Ianto’s shoulder and, with a little effort, found he could move his hand across the surface of the device enough to thread their fingers together in a sign of companionship. It wasn't trust and it was a long way from repairing what had happened, but it was a small step towards forgiveness.  
  
Suddenly, their hands unlocked and a brilliant light burst from where the sticky substance had been, leaving them both blinded, by the time they had adjusted their eyes, they realised they were not alone.  
  
Owen ran in and grabbed hold of Jack, who in turn helped Ianto up and the three of them stumbled away from the device, which was beginning to shake and make a terrible din.  
  
‘What the fuck is it doing?’ Owen gasped.  
  
‘No idea,’ Jack replied, irritably.  
  
The light that was emanating out of the hand-shapes on the side grew around it, and the surface began shimmering like it was changing shape.  
  
Ianto looked at his hands, shaking a little. They were red and a little blistered. Jack noticed his consternation and showed him his hands to prove that his were the same.  
  
Just as suddenly at it began, the device stopped shaking and throwing out light. It calmed and whirred down again, now having changed into more of an irregular shape. The front half of it began to extend and separate out from the rest, like a large door, levering itself upwards and over the top.  
  
Bright yellow light was thrown all around them from inside, leaving them struggling to see anything. Some small clouds of white smoke puffed out of it and clouded what remained of their view.  
  
A shadow began to emerge from the centre of the light. Jack instinctively went for his gun and the three of them stepped back, bracing themselves.  
  
The glow disappeared with a loud whoosh and the device went dead.  
  
Sitting on the floor just in front of it, was a small child with dark hair and big blue eyes, staring back up at them. It looked between them one at a time and started to cry.  
  
Jack and Owen were so surprised neither of them managed to move fast enough to catch Ianto as he fainted.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ARCHIVE NOTE: This fic is not wholly mine! It was written in collaboration with Mav (maverick0324) who I have subsequently lost touch with. Mav, if you're out there, hope you don't mind me posting this up again! 
> 
> This fic was originally written back in 2007 on LJ, now rescued and reposted here for safekeeping. 
> 
> I'll post one part a day of this (and its sequel) until all the parts are up, so stay tuned!

When Ianto came to, he realised he had been moved into the autopsy room, laid out on the metal table in fact. Owen was no where to be seen, but he could be heard in a shouting match with what sounded like Gwen and Jack. Ianto shook his head before realising that that just made things worse. He doubled over and grabbed his stomach with one hand and his head with another; he really was falling to pieces.  
  
‘I don't know what it is!’  
  
‘It's not an “it”, he's a boy!’  
  
‘Well, we can't be sure, _it_ could be an alien and those aren't subjugated to primitive earth definitions of gender.’  
  
‘It's on earth, it looks like a boy, therefore it will to be subjugated to whatever definitions I give it.’  
  
‘Oh will you two bloody shut it? It's obvious it's human. I ran the bio-scan of it.’ Owen interrupted Gwen and Jack and waved his scanner in Jack's face for added emphasis. ‘And so because human ergo _boy_.’ Jack just rolled his eyes as he watched Ianto making his way cautiously over to the group of adults.  
  
‘Have you guys stopped fighting long enough so we can come back?’ Ianto looked up  
to see Tosh walking in with a small toddler in her arms. Ianto blinked, sure he had imagined that part.  
  
‘Is that...?’  
  
‘Despite what _some_ people here believe,’ Gwen glared at Jack, ‘it's a little boy.’  
  
Ianto nodded his head and held out his arms for the child. Tosh smiled slowly and handed the squirming child over. Ianto couldn't believe what he was looking at, the child smiled widely up at him and it was the spitting image of Jack's grin.  
  
_Oh._  
  
He looked the boy over... his nose, his hair and eyes, Jack's ears and smile... and God knew what other parts of him belonged to who. ‘So this part wasn't a figment of my imagination? There really is a boy.’  
  
‘Yes there is.’ Gwen looked so proud and so very... _human_ it was frankly frightening Ianto.  
  
‘And it's mine and Jack's?’  
  
‘Yeah it...’  
  
‘Woah, woah back up the truck now.’ Jack interrupted Tosh and went over to the toddler that had curled up quite happily in Ianto's arms. ‘I admit that I was holding onto that one end of the rock but the kid looks nothing like me,’ he protested, cocking his head a bit as if to try and study the child that much harder.  
  
Ianto glared right back at Jack, ‘You have to be bloody kidding me. Not yours?’  
  
‘It could be anything!’ Jack yelled in response, though his voice sounded noticeably weaker. ‘Just because it looks like a kid, and acts like a kid, doesn’t make it a kid. And it doesn’t look anything like me anyway!’  
  
Little fingers clung onto the fabric of Ianto’s jacket and the boy rested his head on Ianto’s collarbone. Ianto found himself bouncing up and down on his heels a little as if to rock him to sleep. He blushed a little at the gently simpering expression on Toshiko’s face at his instincts towards looking after it but couldn’t stop. There was just something about the child which had immediately told him that they were related; in fact, he looked almost the spitting image of some snaps of he’d seen of himself at that age, not to mention the resemblance between this kid and some of his nephews as well. Ianto just knew, almost as if he could sense it, that he was holding his own flesh and blood. A strange warmth spread through his chest holding the little boy in his arms and before he knew it, he was smiling back at Tosh in exactly the same way.  
  
‘You shouldn’t even be holding it!’ Jack continued to rant, pointing at him. ‘Who knows what it could do if it turns out to be some alien spawn - it could bite your head off!’  
  
‘Now you’re just being silly,’ Gwen growled. ‘Owen did the tests and he’s human. Completely human.’  
  
‘And... in two seconds, I’ll be able to tell you if the DNA matches up like I think it will,’ Owen chipped in. He was leaning over, looking into some sort of machine containing three plastic sheets with lines and DNA markers on them displayed on the screen at a magnified level. One sheet was done in red, one in blue and one in green. He was busy moving the sheets around, trying to match up the lines and markers.  
  
‘It won’t,’ Jack said, confidently, and stepped back with his arms folded.  
  
‘It might.’  
  
‘It _won't_.’  
  
‘It... does.’ A perverse little grin lit up Owen’s face. ‘Told you there’s a really obvious resemblance.’  
  
Jack pushed him aside to have a look at the DNA lines for himself.  
  
‘The red markers are yours, the blue are Ianto’s and the green are the kid’s,’ he explained, pointing at the screen with his pen. ‘Obviously, the red and blue don’t match but the green one has markers which match perfectly with both, see. So I guess this is congratulations, _Dad_ ,’ Owen snickered. ‘I’ve heard of wham, bam, thank you ma’am but... ow!’ He was cut off by a sharp jab to the ribs from Gwen.  
  
Jack stepped back from the machine, his face fixed into a expression of confusion, shock and maybe even a little fear. He slowly turned to Ianto and their eyes met. Jack’s eyes quickly grew hard as steel.  
  
Ianto really wasn’t sure what to do under that sharp gaze. So he just stared back and said nothing.  
  
All too quickly, Jack took on his patented “leader” stance and voice. ‘Doesn’t prove a thing,’ he stated, coldly, ‘Ianto, I’m ordering you to put it down until we know more about what it is and what that alien machine was.’  
  
A flare of anger went through his body at the tone being taken. ‘No.’  
  
‘Ianto,’ the Captain repeated through gritted teeth, ‘I won’t ask you again. Put it down.’  
  
‘No!’  
  
‘Ianto!’ He took a step closer to them, threateningly.  
  
The boy looked around at Jack with wide eyes and immediately started crying.  
  
‘He’s just a baby,’ Ianto whispered, holding him just a little closer, trying to soothe away the tears. ‘That thing, whatever it was - some sort of alien reproduction aid or whatever - it took our DNA and made a kid. That’s all there is to it.’  
  
Jack growled softly, grinding his teeth together as he could see his entire time standing against him on this. One day a cyberwoman, the next... a two year old. Well, they caused about the same level of destruction at least. Jack pointed at the toddler who whimpered at being addressed. ‘I am going to make this quite clear, I don't care what the data says, it's not entirely human and it is most certainly not mine. Do with him what you want, but leave me out of it.’ Jack turned and stalked back to his office, his coat swirling around his legs dramatically.  
  
The child sniffled in Ianto’s arms, his face buried against Ianto’s chest as he stood there in stunned silence. True, it wasn't like he and Jack were a couple; the child wasn't even created in the normal way. But regardless Ianto knew it was his and felt some sort of bound loyalty towards him. That Jack had felt no such thing, even going to far as to deny all claims to the child angered him to the core.  
  
‘Ianto, if you'd like, I can take him...’ Gwen began but Ianto turned her down flat.  
  
‘No. He’s... he’s my responsibility now. I'll take care of him. If The Captain asks to see me, well... Yeah, you know.’ He sighed and went up the stairs, hoping against hope that there were the cookies he’d left in the kitchen the previous day hadn’t already been taken. Only a few were gone, so he put three or four on a plate. Then he got some milk, opened the top with his teeth and poured some into a glass.  
  
Tosh had used one of his cleaning rags as a makeshift nappy but it was rapidly coming untied. So Ianto picked out a clean towel and bundled it around the little boy so he wouldn’t get cold. He sat down, holding him in the crook of his arm, as he offered him a cookie. ‘Hungry?’ he asked.  
  
The kid looked at it, then up at him. He smiled and took a bite, making a “mmmm” noise. Then he offered it again. This time it was accepted.  
  
A few bites and the kid was eagerly scoffing them down, like he’d never eaten before, which Ianto supposed was true. The oddest thing was, on a Torchwood scale, this wasn’t the weirdest thing that he’d ever seen happen. A gene splicer latching onto two employees turning out a child was tame compared to a few incidents he’d witnessed at Torchwood One. Of course, the detail that it had been him and his Boss, a man he honestly couldn’t decipher his own feelings towards, did push up the weirdness factor up somewhat.  
  
At least he wasn’t a complete novice with children. He’d taken care of enough nephews and nieces in his time to know the ropes. It was a bit different with a child who was, apparently, his own. Just the thought was... absurd. He was a father. A dad! He had a _son_.  
  
The boy pointed at the glass of milk and Ianto chuckled. ‘Thirsty? Not surprised.’ He ran a cloth over his mouth and handed over the glass, keeping one hand on it to hold most of the weight.  
  
‘You look like you’ve done that before.’  
  
He jumped a little at the voice intruding upon his thoughts. Ianto turned and gave Gwen a coy smile.  
  
‘I had a big family.’  
  
She chuckled and grabbed a stool, sitting opposite to him. ‘Aw he’s beautiful.’ Gwen ducked down a little, giving the child a big soppy grin. ‘Hello there you!’  
  
He took one look at her and buried his face in Ianto’s chest.  
  
‘Aw,’ Gwen giggled and looked back at Ianto. ‘Owen asked me to fetch you. He wants to do a check up on you.’  
  
‘Check up?’  
  
‘Your hands?’  
  
‘Oh!’ He’d forgotten already. ‘They’re fine, see.’ He showed her his free hand. The redness was almost gone already. ‘Besides, I’ve got a lot to do now. Need to get him some clothes for a start. A pram maybe. Uh... toys? I’ll need a child seat for my car. There’s just... there’s just so much to think of. I don’t know where to start.’  
  
Gwen nodded and tried to get a hold of the little one's attention but Ianto couldn't help but smile when he refused to acknowledge Gwen. ‘Perhaps I should get started on that...’ He muttered, picking the boy up and handing him over to Gwen. ‘Do you think you could watch him while I go out to the shops?’  
  
Ianto stood up and began to clean up the mess he had made with the cookies, ‘Of course, love to look after him. Such a cute little--Ow!’ Ianto turned to see the little boy tugging hard on Gwen's hair and giggling.  
  
‘Er, no! No don't do that!’ Ianto scolded, the child wriggling away from Gwen and clinging onto Ianto's leg. ‘On second thought, um, can you run a few errands for me?’ Ianto looked hopeful and Gwen just glared at the child but decided that it would be better than being abused and left.  
  
Ianto looked down at the boy and bit his lip. He really shouldn't commend such behaviour but, it was rather funny. ‘Come on you, let's see if we can find something interesting for you to do here.’ He remembered that a few months back some things had come through the hub, blocks of a sort that connected and made all sorts of interesting things. They had been deemed safe so perhaps he could play with them.  
  
‘We're going to have to come up with something to call you if you're going to be staying with us for a while. Can't just keep calling you The Boy or The Kid,’ Ianto muttered as they entered the archives and went straight to the “Harmless” section. ‘Now, I do believe... Ah here they are!’ Ianto cleared a bit of space for them and sat the boy down on the ground with the group of blocks before relaxing back against the cabinets. His body was exhausted, his head aching and his limbs heavy. Maybe if he just relaxed for a minute he would be alright.  
  
The next thing Ianto saw was Tosh with a rather bright smile on her face. ‘Hey there, you must have been real tired to fall asleep in here.’ Tosh had quite a few bags around her feet as she was kneeling right by him. ‘What...?’  
  
‘You two fell asleep.’  
  
‘Two?’ Ianto looked down to where the toddler had apparently climbed up into his lap and nodded off as well. A slow smile spread across his face slowly as he ran a hand through the boy’s hair.  
  
‘He really is very sweet looking,’ Tosh murmured softly. She kneeled down and made herself comfortable beside them before holding up the bags in display. ‘Gwen bought some clothes and toys but she got called home by Rhys so I went to pick them up. She also got a child seat for your car too but I left that upstairs. Oh and there’s a pram and a cot on order too. They should arrive tomorrow.’  
  
She put them down and he took a peek inside. The toddler made a sniffling sound and slowly started to wake up too.  
  
Toshiko pulled out some Pampers and broke open the pack. ‘A bit better than my cleaning rags nappy,’ she said, and helped Ianto get one on him.  
  
Then she handed over a pair of khaki trousers, a purple shirt, a jacket to go over the top and finally some socks and shoes. The kid giggled and kicked as Ianto tried to get them on his little feet, making them both laugh at him in turn.  
  
‘There we go, much better,’ Ianto said, and kissed him on the forehead. The child gave them a beaming smile which belonged to someone else.  
  
It made Ianto’s face fall a little. ‘Have you seen Jack?’  
  
‘I went to see him to show him my analysis of that alien device. He just took the papers and dismissed me.’  
  
‘Obviously having a kid with the guy who nearly got you all killed a week ago was not high up on his list of things to do today.’  
  
Tosh gave him a little smile and patted him on the shoulder. ‘If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think that device was there to do any damage. As far as I can tell, it appears to be a just a reproductive aid, though a pretty advanced one, obviously. There is some alien script on the dial section on the reverse but I can’t identify the language just yet. I’m hoping that if I can match the language we’ll know a bit more about where it came from originally. It looks like it’s been down there for a long time though.’  
  
‘Did you find anything in the archives?’  
  
‘Not on the computerised bit, aside from a footnote here and there. I wouldn’t know where to start on all the older files no one’s got round to imputing yet. That’s your area really.’ She shrugged. ‘I wanted to check up on you first though. How are you, Ianto?’ The sincerity in her voice and in her expression was beautiful. Not for the first time, Ianto was more than grateful she had forgiven him so quickly and that, for whatever reason, they were actually closer now than they had been before Lisa’s rampage.  
  
‘Uh... well...’ he struggled to find words to explain, ‘I’m not feeling as strange as I think I ought to be feeling. I mean, I never expected this. It’s... crazy. But... at the same time it’s not. He’s here. He’s... I can see myself in him so much somehow. He’s mine. He really is.’  
  
Toshiko smiled as he crawled off Ianto’s legs and over onto her. ‘Hello,’ she said, a little shyly, ‘aren’t you a handsome little boy?’ She looked completely taken aback as the toddler crawled up and put his arms around her in a hug. Tentatively she held onto him and stroked his hair.  
  
‘Looks like you’ve made a friend there,’ Ianto said, grinning.  
  
‘Apparently,’ she chuckled, ducking her head, shyly. ‘Have you thought about a name for him yet? I keep wanting to call him something.’  
  
‘I was thinking the same thing. I just don’t know what it should be.’  
  
‘Well.’ She resituated herself on the floor next to Ianto, running a hand through the child’s hair. ‘He did spring forth from a rock, well not fully grown, but not exactly a child either,’ Tosh mused, ‘ “ _A child will come into the world, he will be the son of the Gods and not born from any woman but shall spring forth from the earth..._ ” ’  
  
“ _...fully grown and he shall lead the Britons into battle and shall be your king._ ”,’ Ianto finished, smiling widely at Tosh. ‘I read that myth too.’ Ianto looked down at the brightly smiling boy in Tosh's lap. ‘Hello Arthur.’ He laughed as Arthur jumped back into Ianto's lap and hugged him too.  
  
‘Seems he likes it,’ Tosh chuckled, standing and gathering up all the bags.  
  
‘I can get those Tosh...’  
  
‘Let me Ianto. You get Arthur and I'll help you carry some of this stuff out to the car.’ Ianto followed Tosh, holding up a hand as he held Arthur to him and climbed the stairs up to Jack's office slowly.  
  
Taking a deep breath he knocked on the door, waited, and then finally entered when Jack said nothing. He was at his desk, apparently scrolling through something on his computer. He scowled at Ianto as he stood there in the doorway, holding the child.  
  
‘I was just going to ask if it was alright to leave, with the child I mean. Can we take him outside of the Hub and all?’ Ianto indicated to the extra medical reports that Jack had on his desk from Owen. Arthur might look, sound, smell and act human but... well Ianto liked to follow protocols and one of the first rules was no escaping with alien life forms.  
  
‘Take him, do what you want, doesn't concern me.’ Jack muttered, looking back down at his reports and ignoring Ianto while he stood there.  
  
Ianto frowned deeply at the Captain, finding it hard to respect someone who would toss out his responsibilities as easily as he was doing now. He sighed, shaking his head as he made his way back down to the Hub and led Tosh out into the parking lot. ‘I had really hoped that maybe he had just needed time or something...’ Ianto muttered, still unable to believe this.  
  
‘Well, it’s only been a few hours. And you know how stubborn he can be when he wants to be.’  
  
‘I suppose.’  
  
He unlocked his boot and helped Toshiko put all of the bags in as best he could. Then he handed over Arthur while he got to grips installing the child seat. It took a while to get it in correctly, not helped by Arthur’s increasing impatience, but he felt a lot better once his son was strapped in safely.  
  
‘Will you need a hand when you get home?’ Tosh offered.  
  
‘Oh I... I wouldn’t want to trouble you.’  
  
‘No it’s no trouble. I was only going to do some reading this evening. Nothing planned.’  
  
Ianto couldn’t entirely hide his relief at the offer of a little help. He smiled thankfully at Tosh, ‘Well, if you have nothing better to do then, yeah, why don't you come over? We can grab some take away or something and you can help me decide what else I need to do to baby proof my house.’  
  
Tosh smiled warmly and got in alongside Ianto. Arthur was in the back seat, babbling on in gibberish, _or an alien language_ Ianto thought suddenly as he pulled out and drove to his house.  
  
‘You know, I don't think I've ever been to your flat Ianto.’ Tosh juggled the bags in her hands as Ianto opened the door and let them in.  
  
‘I don't really think anyone has.’ Ianto brought Arthur into the flat before heading back out of the door to pick up the paper bags of greasy Chinese food. Healthy eating had been far from Ianto's mind after the stresses of the day.  
  
‘Here, why don't you get Arthur settled and everything so I can start on the food?’ Tosh gently shoved Ianto into the den and towards his son. ‘He's more comfortable with you anyways.’  
  
Ianto relented and grabbed a few of the toy bags and sat down next to Arthur. ‘Hey there, what say we go and get your room a bit more kid-friendly?’ He helped Arthur down and took his hand, leading him into the spare bedroom. It had a single bed and a dresser, bare he supposed but all in good condition.  
  
‘I suppose we'll have to redecorate... Don't suppose you’re really a fan of Art Deco huh?’ Ianto picked Arthur up and stood him on the bed as he bent down and pulled out a red floppy stuffed dragon.  
  
Ianto chuckled. Annoying as she might be, Gwen was right, she did know kids. Arthur's eyes lit up as he snatched the dragon from Ianto's hands and clutched it to his own chest tightly. ‘Yeah you like him? “Draig”, can you say that?’ Arthur just babbled and Ianto smiled as he pulled out the rest of the toys as well as some clothes Gwen had purchased.  
  
Ianto tucked the clothes away into the wardrobe, chuckling when he found an almost exact replica of a suit he owned, only in pint-sized form. It was frankly, rather cute.  
  
‘Ianto? You two ready?’  
  
‘Oh yeah, be right there Tosh.’ Ianto scooped up Arthur, who had picked up his dragon once more and pretended to fly him into the kitchen. It was odd to sit down with Tosh for dinner like this.  
  
It was almost as if they were a family.


	3. Chapter 3

Jack took another sip of his whiskey and sat back in his chair, staring into his hands. The redness and blistering serving as a reminder of what had happened was almost gone.  
  
If only the consequences of it were so easily erased.  
  
Surges of anger kept hitting him and leaving him breathless. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He’d been careful, damned careful, not to get tied down. Whatever fucker made that thing had no right to do this to him, or to Ianto, but especially not to him.  
  
Jack wasn’t like other people. He couldn’t settle down and play happy families. He’d tried that with Estelle for a while, and even then he had been careful not to risk any little accidents of that nature. So it wasn’t fair that some random piece of alien technology should do this to him. Not fair at all.  
  
He’d never intended to live through a century he wasn’t even born into, and he sure as hell wasn’t intending to stick around when that special kind of Doctor finally came calling. Jack couldn’t get tied down, not by anyone or anything, he just couldn’t. Any minute he could be gone.  
  
‘Fuck fuck fuck,’ he gasped and downed the rest of his drink, throwing caution to the wind for once.  
  
It was stupid. The kid didn’t even look like him. Yes, it had dark hair and blue eyes, from what little he’d seen, but so did Ianto. That proved nothing. And there was always the chance that Owen was having them on. It was the sort of thing he would do.  
  
Probably. Maybe.  
  
Jack sat back and let his thought processes go around in circles, tying him completely in knots. He just couldn’t get the look on Ianto’s face - that warm caring expression that had completely taken him over holding that kid - out of his mind. Of course, it wasn’t all that surprising that Ianto would react so well to suddenly being presented with a kid, since the debacle with Lisa proved just how easily he loved and how devotedly he cared for others. It caught him some way between being angry that Ianto had latched onto the thing so quickly, so easily, and being happy to see that slightly haunted, slightly bitter expression that he’d been wearing for the past week fade away. Jack really didn’t know what he felt anymore.  
  
All he knew was, even if his DNA was taken to make the kid, if it really was the kid it appeared to be, he simply could not get involved. He couldn’t allow himself to look at it and risk that which he had been so careful to avoid for decades; that he’d get too attached and be unable to leave when the time came.  
  
No way. Not happening. He’d be damned if he was going to let this thing get to him. If the kid was really his – and he still wasn’t entirely convinced it wasn’t just Owen playing games – then Ianto could play the parent. It was the sort of thing he’d be good at anyway.  
  
Jack was counting himself right out.  
  
He moved to pour himself another whiskey, only to discover that he’d drained the bottle. So he threw it at the wall, enjoying the loud smash of shattering glass, and glared into his hands a while longer, wondering what to do.  
  
*  
  
‘Ianto, you’re dreaming! Wake up! Ianto!’  
  
He woke with a shout, shaking and covered in sweat from head to toe. The sound of loud crying hurt his ears and he turned to find Toshiko sitting near him, holding a very distressed toddler.  
  
It took him a moment to remember who the toddler was. ‘I... I...’ he stuttered.  
  
‘Shhh, it’s okay,’ Tosh cooed, holding Arthur tightly and rocking him a little.  
  
Ianto looked around, blinking, belatedly remembering he was sleeping on a mattress on the floor because he’d been afraid Arthur would fall off the side of the bed, so he’d decided to sleep beside him, closer to the floor just in case. And he’d given Tosh the spare room for the night – yes, it was all coming back.  
  
‘Arthur, I’m... I’m sorry,’ he gasped and put a hand on his back, hoping against hope to reassure him somehow. ‘It was... bad dream.’  
  
‘Must have been very bad, I could hear you yelling from across the hallway,’ Tosh said, looking decidedly haggard. He got the impression he’d given her as much of a scare as he’d given Arthur.  
  
‘Sorry.’ He ran his hand through his wet hair, trying to calm his breathing. The nightmare, it had been about Lisa. It was always about Lisa in the end.  
  
Ianto gathered himself enough to find Draig the Dragon and to try and offer it to Arthur to comfort him. The toddler was having none of it. He was inconsolable. ‘May I?’ he asked, and took him from Toshiko’s arms. ‘Shhhh, baby, shhhh, it’s okay. I’m here.’  
  
Finally he started to calm a little, the great wailing cries turning into small sniffling sobs.  
  
‘You’re so good with kids,’ Tosh chuckled.  
  
He gave her a wan smile and held onto the child tightly, trying to get his heartbeat to slow down and to relax again. Ianto hadn’t had a nightmare for the past three nights in a row, so he’d thought they were gone. If he’d have known he’d give the poor kid such a fright he would have let Toshiko sleep there instead.  
  
‘I’m sorry I disturbed you. You can go back to bed if you like,’ he offered.  
  
She just shrugged. ‘No point. We’re getting up in about an hour anyway.’  
  
They exchanged nods and went downstairs to the kitchen for an early breakfast.  
  
Ianto shifted Arthur on his hip before giving in and setting him on the kitchen counter. He and Tosh quickly went over any solution they could think of for what to do with him while they were at work. Ianto immediately nixed using a nursery as, with the hours he kept, he felt it was unfair to leave a child in someone else's care for so long. Tosh insisted that Torchwood had to have some sort of child services to deal with employee's children but it wasn't like up until then any of them would have been using one, so it was doubtful.  
  
In the end, Ianto just brought him to work with him and hoped that nothing too world shattering would happen to put the little child in danger. As it was, he was currently munching on one of the alien cookies they had found on the rift, happy like any normal child is over chocolate and completely ignoring the alien properties that made the cookies glow different colours.  
  
‘What's he doing here?’ Ianto turned slightly and saw Jack standing rather stiffly in the doorway.  
  
‘Well, he only looks to be about two years old, it's not like I could leave him home alone,’ Ianto replied, busying himself with the coffee machine rather than bother to look at the man that had so disappointed him.  
  
‘He'll cause trouble.’  
  
‘I'll keep an eye on him.’  
  
‘It's not your job to be baby-sitting a toddler.’  
  
‘No, it's not,’ Ianto snapped turning to face Jack and glaring at him. ‘But someone has to do it and since he's part mine, I feel some sense of responsibility to him. I'm sorry you don't.’  
  
Jack opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by Arthur looking at Jack with a pleading look, arms outstretched as he obviously wanted Jack to pick him up. Jack looked from the toddler to Ianto and back to the child again.  
  
‘Make sure he doesn't break anything or it will be on your head.’ He turned and strode out of the office, hands deep in his pockets.  
  
Arthur watched him go and ducked his head. The first few choked cries of an approaching wail broke out and Ianto sighed. No it wasn’t his job to be babysitting and he could well do without Jack casually strolling in and upsetting the little tyke, especially since he wasn’t exactly feeling at his best. Being woken up so early had made him feel groggy and he couldn’t quite shake the feeling. Usually it wasn’t so bad but keeping a constant watch on Arthur seemed to be wearing him down a little. Even pushing the buttons on the coffee machine felt like a chore today.  
  
From what he could tell, Toshiko was faring a little better at least. She was getting on with her job admirably, carefully studying and cataloguing any and all information on the alien device. He was doing everything he could to keep her coffee supply both timely and at a perfect temperature. It seemed like the least he could do. And the grateful little smiles she gave him were reward enough to keep pressing those heavy buttons and climbing up and down the stairs.  
  
He didn’t get Jack any coffee but he didn’t think he’d be complaining for the time being. Not that Ianto cared if he did. It served him right for being such a cold, stubborn bastard.  
  
To think, just for a moment, when they’d been joined and at the mercy of that damned orb, he’d really come to think that Jack was not the monster he’d judged him to be not too long ago. He’d thought that, in coming to an understanding, in having that time to work through their mutual anger, he’d come to know Jack in a way he never dreamed he would. For a short time there, they had understood each other. It had been a calm moment, like a small meeting of minds.  
  
Now everything he thought he knew was in tatters. Jack was obviously not what he had seemed to be then. That person wouldn’t be so cold-hearted towards an innocent child, no matter how unusual the circumstances. He wouldn’t be so dismissive.  
  
Ianto scooped Arthur up in his arms and tried to calm him down. He held Draig up and let the toddler grab the toy and hug into it. ‘Don’t get upset, he’s just a... well I don’t think I should say what he is in front of you.’  
  
Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around. Owen grinned and put his hands over Arthur’s ears. ‘He’s a bastard.’  
  
‘Something like that,’ Ianto said, cautiously, not sure what could have possibly got Owen away from his workstation, and all the porn websites that he checked up on there, because the advanced system could hack him into paysites. ‘What do you want? More coffee?’  
  
Owen just ruffled his hand through Arthur’s dark, messy hair. ‘Allo trouble,’ he said, and pulled a dopey face when the kid looked around to him. ‘What’s all this crying about, eh? Come on, no sad faces in Torchwood. It’s a company rule.’  
  
Arthur giggled at the silly faces he was pulling and reached out with hand, batting him gently on the nose. As Owen exaggeratedly pretended to be hurt, he laughed even more. Even Ianto found himself smiling a little at Owen’s antics. He hadn’t exactly pictured him as the type to be good around children, so he was taken aback a little by the display.  
  
‘Gonna be a boxer when you grow up, kid? We should call you Bruno. You like that name?’  
  
‘His name’s Arthur,’ Ianto countered.  
  
‘Arthur?’ He arched an eyebrow, cynically. ‘Are you kidding? What century are you from again?  
  
‘There’s nothing wrong with the name Arthur,’ he sighed, exasperated.  
  
‘Not if you want him to be a ballerina when he grows up.’  
  
Ianto rolled his eyes. ‘Owen, is there a point to this or did you just feel like wandering around and liberally insulting my child?’  
  
‘Hey, okay okay, I take it back. Arthur it is. I wouldn’t wanna upset someone who can land such a blow.’ Owen moved close enough again for the boy to playfully bat him on the nose. Again he pretended to be nearly knocked out, making Arthur roar with laughter. ‘Ow! My dose my dose!’  
  
‘Owen.’ Ianto was reaching the end of his patience and he let it show in his voice.  
  
‘Alright, alright. Gwen sent me. Apparently the cot and the pram have arrived and she wanted to know if we were going to put them up here or if you wanted them taking out to your car.’  
  
‘Where is she?’  
  
‘Up in the tourist office, flirting with the delivery guy.’  
  
He held back a moment, trying to decide whether to bring Arthur up with him or leave him with Owen. In the end, he decided to take him. He didn’t quite trust Owen enough to care for him, just yet. Ianto gave him a nod and got going.  
  
Ianto cradled Arthur on his hip, much like he remembered his own mother doing with his younger brother and Ianto fervently wished he wasn't picking up too many maternal instincts here. ‘Gwen, Owen said the delivery man was here...’ He began before rolling his eyes and seeing where Gwen and the other man were outside, peeking at his truck.  
  
Shifting Arthur again, Ianto went outside to meet the man. ‘Hi. Ianto Jones - you have a delivery for me?’ Ianto set Arthur on the ground as he took the shipping slip from the man and looked over it. ‘I was thinking, I'll take the pram here, but if you could help me carry the crib and get it into my own car...’ Ianto began as he signed his name, head jerking up when he heard Arthur wail angrily.  
  
Gwen had picked the boy up and had tried to make him smile by having Draig “attack” him. Arthur just screamed loudly for his dragon. ‘Err, Gwen why don't you help the man get the crib to my car...?’ He handed over the keys has he scooped up the child, relaxing only when Arthur sagged against him in relief.  
  
She opened her mouth to say something, closing it before taking the keys and handing over the stuffed dragon. Ianto could hear her muttering something about spoiling children as he took the pram into the tourist office. ‘Right, because making sure one's child isn't hurt and is alright is spoiling them,’ Ianto muttered, setting Arthur down on the tourist counter and fixing his jumper.  
  
‘Oh dear, now what's wrong?’ Tosh grinned as she exited the lift and handed Ianto a large cup of coffee. Ianto smiled gratefully and took the cup as he moved to unpack the pram and start assembly. Tosh moved over to Arthur, playing peek-a-boo with him until he was giggling away happily. The bell to the tourist office dinged as Gwen entered, she sent Tosh a jealous look before heading straight down to the Hub.  
  
‘Oh dear, what's gotten into her today?’ Tosh scooped Arthur off the counter and went over to stand by Ianto as he finished pulling all the miscellaneous pieces out of the box.  
  
‘I don't think Arthur really likes her.’  
  
‘Oh. That's... too bad,’ Tosh deadpanned and Ianto had to look up to see that Tosh was desperately trying not to laugh.  
  
‘Yes, yes it is,’ Ianto agreed as he began assembling pieces.  
  
‘Do you need any help with that?’  
  
‘Tosh, I assembled a cyber unit. I can handle a pram.’ He said gently, smiling when Tosh flushed deeply. ‘Why don't you take Arthur down to the hub? I know he likes being with you and maybe he can help you figure out what that device is.’ He suggested, Tosh nodded and took Arthur's hand.  
  
‘C'mon big boy. We're going to play with alien DNA splicers!’ Arthur clapped his hands and jumped as they got into the lift. Ianto watched them with a wistful look on his face. Fatherhood had been something he had thought of, of course, but it had always been a distant dream. Something to think about when he and Lisa weren't still doing the ground work at Torchwood and their own lives were a bit simpler. He had thought about what their children might look like, lying awake and unable to sleep with her in his arms. They had always had her eyes and smile, both equally bright and inquisitive. But Ianto found as he watched Arthur wave to him as the lift doors closed, he couldn't picture his child any other way.  
  
*  
  
Jack watched the CCTV as Ianto finished with the pram, wiping his hands off on his trousers as he suspected a job well done. Watching Arthur and Ianto interact tugged at his belly in a way that he knew was far more dangerous than many of the alien devices they had catalogued over the years. It was that primal tug of needing to care for one's offspring, to ensure the safety and survival of the next generation. He still denied his own connections to Arthur, refusing to believe that an alien made copy of part of his DNA existed and that in any way made him his child.  
  
But Jack couldn't deny the feelings he felt watching them interact and that made it far worse.  
  
A knock on the door had him scrambling to switch off his monitor. Gwen entered and gave him a wan smile. She strolled inside and leaned on his desk, pretending to be interested in the random paperwork he had in front of him, presumably looking for some reason to be there.  
  
‘What can I do for you?’ he asked.  
  
‘Oh nothing. I was just... well, I was wondering how you’re doing really.’  
  
‘How I’m doing?’  
  
‘Yeah, since... well, since Arthur...’  
  
‘Arthur?’ he cut her off. ‘Is that what they’re calling him? Interesting choice of name.’  
  
‘I think Tosh said it was after the King. You know, King Arthur. I think it suits him actually.’  
  
Jack just shrugged, not about to give any sign of feelings in either direction. If truth be told he liked the name. It harked back to a period in time which held some fond memories for him. But he wasn’t about to tell her that.  
  
‘It’s just, you’ve been very quiet on the subject since he appeared,’ Gwen said, clearly leading the conversation because she knew he wasn’t exactly going to be forthcoming. ‘Are you alright?’  
  
‘Of course I am.’  
  
‘Sure?’  
  
‘Yep. Some alien piece of technology hijacked my DNA and used it to make a mini-me. Happens every day. It’s no big deal.’ Jack didn’t intend to be so sarcastic, his words just slipped out that way.  
  
The pencil he had been unconsciously fiddling with snapped in two and seemed to echo through the room.  
  
Gwen stared at him for a second before pulling up a seat. ‘It’s not his fault, you know.’  
  
‘Who, Ianto or the baby?’  
  
‘Either.’ She smiled at him, gently. ‘At least you’re calling him a baby now.’  
  
‘Who, Ianto or...’  
  
‘You know who I mean. Yesterday you were convinced he was about to bite our heads off, or have you forgotten?’  
  
Jack tried to smile but it didn’t really reach his eyes.  
  
‘So does this mean you see the resemblance yet or are you still being stubborn on that one too?’  
  
He elected not to answer that question.  
  
‘I can’t help you if you won’t talk to me, Jack.’  
  
‘Who says I need any help?’ This was no time to be pulling her bleeding heart routine. ‘Before you say it, Gwen I’m dealing. It’s happened. That’s it, it’s over.’  
  
‘It’s not over when you won’t even look at the kid.’ Gwen sat forwards in the chair, putting her hands on the desk, a curious and slightly exasperated expression on her face. ‘Haven’t you ever wanted kids, Jack? Haven’t you ever, I don’t know, felt that need?’  
  
He frowned, so deeply his cheeks flushed. It wasn’t as if he was about to tell her that he’d been there, done that, changed the diapers, did the whole parenting thing and eventually seen her grow old, a long time into the future. Somehow, he just didn’t think she’d understand, even if he could find the words to describe that. ‘G wen, can we do this another time? I’ve got a lot of work to do. Paperwork.’ Jack held some up as an example. ‘Lots of it.’  
  
‘But...’  
  
‘Gwen.’ Jack warned her off with his eyes before taking her by the hand and practically shoving her out of the door. He could sense her lingering on the other side of the door, wondering if she should come back in, and was relieved when she decided to leave it.  
  
Slowly, he returned to his seat and collapsed in it. Jack stroked his fingers over the monitor button, trying to dissuade himself from turning it on again. It didn’t work. For some reason, he couldn’t stop watching Ianto and the child. _Their child_. A being they had accidentally made together, which he knew was in part his, even if he couldn’t be what he should be to him.  
  
He shifted the camera back to the main Hub and watched Ianto and Arthur sitting on the toy mat, playing with the word blocks, fighting himself not to go down there and join in.


	4. Chapter 4

Jack knew it was wrong and pathetic and really he should be more ashamed of himself and what he was doing than he was, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. For the past week and a half he had watched Ianto and Tosh leave together, watched as they got into the same car and, presumably, went to the same place together.  
  
Ianto's flat.  
  
It wasn’t like he _followed_ them there one evening. He was just out for a walk. On the other side of the Bay. In a small sleepy little neighbourhood. Yeah, that was it. He had stood out on the sidewalk (not going through the bushes, not going to admit that he was stalking damn it) and watched in the relative safety of the darkness as Ianto pottered around in a kitchen and Tosh swung Arthur around happily.  
  
They made a lovely little pretend family.  
  
He had never seen Ianto and Tosh doing anything... together. But he knew, he _knew_ that when the lights went out there had to be things other than yahtzee going on. And in the morning, Tosh and Ianto would always arrive in the same car, laughing and smiling, juggling coffee and keys, toddlers and dragons as if it was natural for them.  
  
Jack had not been surprised when he felt that slow flicker of jealousy in the pit of his stomach. He was surprised at how the small flicker grew into a raging fire and how far it spread. Watching Tosh with Arthur, watching her interact with the child, his child, as if it were hers was something that Jack did not want to do. Could not stand to do (and often wouldn't, taking a perverse pleasure in interrupting Tosh any time she was playing with the boy in the hub).  
  
But what surprised him even more was how upset he got at the idea of what Tosh and Ianto were up to after the lights went out and Arthur went to bed.  
  
By rights he had no problems with Ianto and Tosh together, and even in the more sane areas of his mind, he pointed out to himself that Tosh and Ianto were a lot alike and that perhaps she would bring a sense of stability and ease to his life that Ianto desperately was due.  
  
But then, Jack would look at Ianto holding Arthur and it wasn't _right_.  
  
Which was why, at 8PM that Friday he was manning a stake out alone. The target; a particularly nice restaurant. One that Tosh and Ianto had gone into just now. Alone.  
  
Once he’d found a great place to hide, between a wall and a row of bushes that nobody would be able to see him through, Jack took out the binoculars he had just happened to bring along in case and found his mark. He watched Ianto push Toshiko’s chair in at the back and then take a seat himself opposite to her. He put a bib around Arthur’s neck and they started to look at the menus.  
  
Great as his view was, it didn’t afford much of a view of Ianto. This soon started to make him restless. So Jack decided to uproot and take his chances. He put his binoculars away and stalked the dark alleys around the place to find a better viewpoint. Soon enough he found a great vantage point in a side alley, which gave him a perfect view of Ianto and Arthur. At first he wasn’t sure if he was far enough away not to be seen, but the darkness provided a great cover, so he made the decision that he would be fine.  
  
The waitress was just taking their orders. Arthur was waving his arms excitedly, earning himself a big grin from everyone around him. Damn but he was a cute kid. And seeing him with Ianto, that little button nose was unmistakable; eerie in fact.  
  
He gulped down the knot in his throat and reminded himself, for the umpteenth time, that the kid was none of his concern. His mission was to find out what was going on between Ianto and Toshiko. That was all. No diversions.  
  
When the waitress came back to serve their drinks, he noted down everything from the type of drink to the levels of blush on Toshiko’s cheeks. When the meals came ten or twenty minutes later, he made special note what they were all eating, and was unduly pleased when Ianto wouldn’t let Tosh mash up Arthur’s food and feed it to him. He wasn’t quite sure why.  
  
Ianto ate something with a lot of pasta, while Toshiko went for something with a lot of green. For a while everything seemed to be going well. Jack grew more and more confident that Tosh and Ianto were not the compatible couple they seemed to be on the surface; the only touches were that of good friends. Their manner was warm but not hot; sweet but not flirtatious. In short, he wasn’t getting the vibes.  
  
It was a relief but it wasn’t enough. Jack still felt restless and irritated by the picture presented to him.  
  
As time wore on, he found himself watching the boy more and more. Arthur clearly liked Toshiko but his attention was always on Ianto. Whenever he wanted something he always tried to catch Ianto’s attention, not hers, and Ianto spent most of his meal with his eyes on him, which was a natural conversation killer sometimes.  
  
Watching him made a strange warmth spread through Jack. It was so Ianto to be so involved, so wonderfully caring. It was his greatest strength, and just as equally his Achilles’ Heel, as he had amply demonstrated by setting a Cyberman loose in Torchwood Three.  
  
It made him special though, in a way Jack wished he had noticed before.  
  
He watched Ianto wipe Arthur’s face and hand the dragon toy over, and wondered if perhaps he should call it a night. The answer seemed pretty obvious. Toshiko and Ianto might be playing happy families but he didn’t detect any signs of an actual relationship forming, to his guilty delight.  
  
Jack was about to get going, feeling a spring in his step coming on, when he caught sight of Ianto grimacing. He had his napkin pressed to his mouth. Toshiko looked worried.  
  
All of a sudden, Ianto leapt out of his seat and ran out of sight. He burst out of the restaurant’s front door and made it a few metres to the side before throwing up. Toshiko soon ran out after him, closely followed by the waitress.  
  
He stopped thinking and immediately moved in closer, needing to hear what was being said.  
  
‘Sir, are you alright?’ the waitress was asking.  
  
‘I’m fine...’ Ianto choked, one hand on the wall, the other on his stomach, before throwing up again.  
  
‘No you’re not,’ Toshiko said in what Jack recognised as her most assertive tone. ‘Look you can’t go on like this.’  
  
‘Um, is there something I can do, Sir?’  
  
Tosh turned to the waitress, sharply. ‘Get the bill. We’ll be inside in a moment. Don’t worry, this wasn’t your fault, he’s been sick lately.’  
  
That made Jack prick his ears up a little. He hadn’t known that.  
  
She turned back to Ianto and started rubbing his back. ‘Please, go and see Owen.’  
  
‘I told you, it’s nothing.’  
  
‘You’ve barely kept one meal down the last few days. You’re getting the shakes from lack of food. Something’s wrong.’  
  
He seemed to groan and shook his head. ‘Honestly, Tosh, I’m okay.’ Ianto straightened up and tried to walk back to the front door but his legs immediately let him down and he nearly fell to the ground, having to cling onto the wall to stay upright.  
  
Jack’s brain immediately switched over to instinct and he ran over.  
  
‘J-Jack?’ Tosh stuttered, understandably shocked to see him.  
  
‘What are you doing here?’ Ianto demanded.  
  
‘I was in the neighbourhood.’ He wrapped an arm around his waist and held him up.  
  
‘Tosh, would you mind getting Arthur and seeing to the bill? I’ll pay you back.’  
  
She looked between them and nodded. As she went through the doors, the sound of a toddler wailing at the top of his lungs momentarily reached their ears.  
  
Ianto winced as he heard Arthur screeching and made to straighten up and go get him. ‘Ianto, leave the Wart for the moment, Tosh can handle him.’ Ianto glared at Jack, hand on his side and panting for breath as if he had run a marathon.  
  
‘Some of us prefer to take care of our children ourselves rather than pawn it off on some other person,’ Ianto shot back, but he had paused and was apparently letting Tosh handle him. ‘His name is Arthur.’ Ianto added, finding a bench and falling on it gratefully.  
  
‘Yeah I know.’ Jack muttered and went over to tip Ianto's face back a bit so he could so it better. ‘You don't look so good.’  
  
‘Taking care of a toddler single-handedly is a full time job,’ Ianto bit back.  
  
‘You're not doing it single handed, Tosh is helping.’  
  
‘Only because the other parent doesn't want to admit he has a son!’  
  
Jack glared at Ianto. ‘Stop changing the subject. You look like shit. You need to see a doctor.’  
  
‘I don't want to see a doctor.’ Ianto knocked Jack's hands away before trying to stand up on shaking legs. ‘It's just a bit of exhaustion is all.’  
  
‘That's not what Tosh said. She said you haven't been eating all week. That's serious.’  
  
‘Oh, so what you're spying on me now?’  
  
‘You need to have Owen look at you. At least he could help get some food in you.’ Jack ignored the comment about spying; it wasn't like Ianto knew of his extracurricular activities. ‘Look, you like this can't be good for the Wart...’ He tried a different angle.  
  
‘His name is Arthur! And since when do you care what would be good for him? From what I remember you would have had us dump the poor boy in a cell before determining if he was human or not.’  
  
‘Owen can...’  
  
‘I'm not going to go and see bloody Owen!’ Ianto finally shouted back, his face a lot paler than it had been before.  
  
‘If not Owen then... Then at least let me help...’ Jack reached a hand out to help Ianto as the door to the restaurant opened, Tosh coming out with Arthur snivelling on her shoulder and his dragon clutched in his hands.  
  
‘I don't want your help,’ Ianto said, coldly, batting Jack's hands away. ‘You didn't want to come near your son and you certainly didn't want to be bothered with him so don't even begin to act like you can come in now.’ Jack took a step forward but Ianto pushed him back. ‘Leave me. Alone.’ He growled, doubling over with coughs.  
  
Tosh swooped in, asking if he was alright and helping him stand. Ianto took Arthur from her and glared at Jack as they both headed towards the car.  
  
Jack stood, stunned, as they disappeared into the night.  
  
*  
  
Owen swung open the door and immediately had to put his sleeve to his nose to avoid inhaling any dust. ‘Ianto?’  
  
There was a loud crash from around the corner and Ianto appeared, dressed in overalls, with a facemask over his nose and mouth. He wiped his forehead and removed the mask. ‘Owen?’  
  
‘What the...? Are you tidying or remodelling?’  
  
‘This place was full of junk.’  
  
‘Riiight,’ Owen braved the dust and the mess to step inside a little way. ‘And is there some reason you’re using this dumping ground for the new storage facility instead of, oh say, one of the already empty rooms down the corridor?’  
  
‘Because Jack said he wanted this one sorting. And so that’s what I’m doing,’ he said, enunciating every word far too clearly out of irritation. ‘Is there some reason you’re down here bothering me?’  
  
‘Tosh sent me.’  
  
‘I’m fine,’ he growled and threw down the rag in his hand.  
  
‘Yeah, she said you’d say that.’ He shrugged.  
  
‘It’s just a stomach bug. You wouldn’t want me running to you ever time I have a sniffle, now would you?’ Ianto asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.  
  
‘Fine by me,’ he said, not really too worried either way. Being down in the basement level with Ianto was bringing back some harsh memories and he had been surprised by the feeling of reluctance that had grabbed him on the way down. Owen had nearly turned back to get Tosh to go instead. ‘Oh and Gwen is about to get back from Starbucks. If you want a coffee I suggest you come upstairs.’  
  
Ianto just gave him a frown and disappeared back into the mess.  
  
‘Whatever,’ Owen mumbled under his breath and left.  
  
He waited as long as he could, listening to Owen’s footsteps rescinding into the distance, before collapsing onto his knees gasping for breath. Ianto knew it was just a lack of food but every muscle was sore, like he’d run a marathon. But he was determined to do this, to prove a point. Jack had given him a crummy assignment on purpose, hoping to make him crack and admit he wasn’t well and that he needed help. Well Ianto wasn’t falling for it. He was going to make this place spotless and a perfect new storage facility for all the junk they had sorted the week before, even if it bloody well killed him.  
  
Although the prospect of a coffee was very alluring, not least because coffee seemed to be one of the few substances he could still keep down. He couldn’t help but admit that. He was parched. Ianto took a moment to compose himself and stripped off the overalls.  
  
He’d earned a short break, after all.  
  
*  
  
‘Jack, come on, he’s not well and you know it. You shouldn’t be...’  
  
‘Toshiko, I don’t need to be told what I can and can’t do.’  
  
The toddler perched on her hip babbled something unintelligible in Jack’s direction.  
  
‘And since when has my office been a nursery?’ he grumbled, glaring at them both.  
  
‘This isn’t about Arthur,’ she countered, beginning to get really quite irritated by his cavalier attitude. ‘This is about Ianto and you. You’re annoyed at him, fine. But he’s pushing himself to prove a point that he shouldn’t have to prove. I’m telling you, he’s not well enough to be working!’  
  
‘And I’m telling you, Ianto’s old enough to make his own decisions. He doesn’t need you fighting his battles.’  
  
Jack leapt up from his seat and opened the door, suggestively.  
  
Tosh considered saying more to try and get through to him but could tell he wasn’t going to budge. She shook her head and took the invitation to leave.  
  
As they passed by, Arthur made a grab for Jack’s arm and managed to get hold of his shirt sleeve. Jack had to move his little fingers away one at a time, taking care not to look the kid in the eye, in order to get free.  
  
When he closed the door he found his anger towards Ianto was being tempered slightly by an unexpected pang of guilt. He knew he was being a bastard. He just didn’t know how to fix things any other way.  
  
Jack needed Ianto to back down so he could, perhaps, try and explain why he was acting the way he was. Above all he needed Ianto understand. It was just a matter of getting to the point when he would be willing to listen. That was the problem.  
  
He went back to his seat and switched the monitor screen back on, so he could watch the Hub. Gwen was just entering with a cardboard carrycase filled with Styrofoam coffee cups.  
  
Jack sighed and leaned back in his chair, Ianto had come out from the basement corridors and was standing around drinking his coffee with Arthur perched on his hip. The child was playing with his tie and Jack had to close his eyes to regain his sense of balance.  
  
His weevil alarm went off, alerting him that there was one on the loose outside the sewer systems. He sighed as he grabbed his coat, there were always weevils. ‘Come on, weevil outside the sewers, 5th Street and moving towards the shopping district.’ There was a flurry of activity as Owen went to grab his medkit, Tosh went to check the CCTV system and Gwen... well she just made herself look busy.  
  
‘Alright, Tosh, Gwen, Owen, let's go. Ianto, I need you to stay here and cover back up. Tosh will pull up the CCTV cameras from the SUV, I want you to watch them here and relay back to her.’  
  
Ianto nodded and agreed. It seemed like the most he had said to Jack all day.  
  
Jack turned around, checking everyone was ready to go, seeing Arthur looking up at Jack with big eyes and what looked like a trembling bottom lip in his peripheral vision. ‘C'mon, we're supposed to be able to move out quickly,’ he snapped at everyone, trying to get them to hurry.  
  
Jack looked down and his eyes caught onto Arthur's and he could tell then that whatever was going to happen next was going to be a phenomenally bad idea.  
  
‘Daddy?’ Arthur babbled, making grabby hands towards Jack and looking at him with impossibly large eyes. The flurry of commotion ground to a halt as everyone looked back and forth between Jack and Arthur, then to Ianto and then back to Jack. There was no mistake that Arthur had meant Jack and was still making grabby hands towards him.  
  
Tosh melted a bit, smiling widely whereas Ianto bristled just a bit.  
  
‘Well, I guess that solves Jack's paternity question,’ Owen joked.  
  
‘Come on everyone,’ Jack repeated coldly, turning to leave.  
  
‘But Jack, he just...’  
  
‘I know Gwen,’ Jack snapped, turning back around.  
  
‘Daddy?’ Arthur whined again, Jack forced himself to leave the Hub, hearing the wails of a child whose father had plainly ignored him.  
  
Ianto swept the child up into his arms and watched the team leave over his shoulder. ‘Hey you, since when can you talk?’ He sat down on the couch, sitting Arthur on his knee, facing him. The bottom lip was wobbling and he could see the tears welling up in his eyes. ‘Ohh, come on, don’t do that. He’s just a silly man and he doesn’t know what he’s missing.’ Ianto brushed Arthur’s fringe back a little and rubbed his back. ‘So you _can_ talk then? Been keeping that quiet haven’t you?’  
  
The tears didn’t seem like they were going to go away, so Ianto shuffled forwards a little to reach into the bag on the coffee table. He knew there was a bottle of milk there somewhere and he didn’t feel up to going all the way to the kitchen to fetch one out of the fridge. Once he’d finally found it, having spilt just about everything else in the bag out onto the table, he offered it to Arthur. It was accepted.  
  
He waited for him to finish drinking and then burped him against his shoulder. Arthur no longer looked like he was on the verge of tears but he still seemed kind of sad. ‘Can you say “daddy” again?’ he asked, hopefully. ‘Can you?’  
  
Arthur babbled something unintelligible under his breath.  
  
‘ “Daddy”? Come on Arthur, say it.’  
  
‘Mm...’ the kid began to mumble.  
  
‘If you say “mummy” it will be your last word,’ Ianto warned, lightly.  
  
The little boy turned his head to the side and started to grow limp in his arms. He could tell he was getting tired. It often happened after he’d had some milk. ‘It’s okay, babi*.’ Actually, he was feeling pretty tired himself.  
  
Sighing, because he would have liked nothing more than to lie down and take a nap, he resigned himself to the fact that he needed to be awake and alert, in case the team needed backup from the Hub. Ianto was about to force himself to stand up when he caught sight of a navy blue harness thing on the table; one of the items that had fallen out of the bag.  
  
He smiled. Obviously Gwen had been buying stuff for Arthur again. Of course, she was only doing it because for some reason Arthur was being a little terror towards her and she was hoping it might help, but that didn’t really matter. The harness was just what he needed.  
  
Ianto put Arthur down for a moment to strap it onto his body and slipped his child into it, pressed against his chest. Now he would be able to keep working and keep Arthur close at the same time. Perfect.  
  
*  
  
Since they had, of course, apparently been chasing the Olympic runner for Weevilania all evening, and had still managed to lose the damned thing, it was quite late when Jack had decided they should call it quits.  
  
He’d sent the others straight home, making a point to get Toshiko to spend a rare night at her place by promising to take care of Ianto and Arthur himself.  
  
Jack returned to a quiet Hub, alone. Ianto’s car was still parked up so he was sure he’d still be around somewhere. It didn’t take long to spot him, stretched out on the couch, fast asleep. Arthur was asleep on his chest, resting safely in some sort of harness, one thumb in his mouth.  
  
He would have had to have a heart made of stone not to find himself melting a little inside at the scene before him. Jack couldn’t decide who looked cuter, Ianto or Arthur. He found himself leaning over them, making a mental picture.  
  
Slowly, for fear of waking them, Jack covered them over with a blanket and crouched down. He gave Arthur a little kiss on the head, and without really thinking about it, pressed his lips to Ianto’s cheek. Neither of them woke up. They were obviously worn out.  
  
Jack went around and turned all of the computers down to low power, before dimming all of the lights. Then he went up to his office to drink some whiskey and relax.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * babi = Welsh for “baby”


	5. Chapter 5

Jack arched up into the hot mouth that was slowly descending down his body. Ianto's tongue and teeth a lethal combination on his skin. ‘Oh Lord...’ Jack muttered, squirming on the bed as his mouth slipped just that little bit lower to lick at the slowly emerging head.  
  
‘Where in Jesus fuck did you learn that?’ he gasped, thrusting his hips up and trying to force his cock down Ianto's throat. Ianto was just chuckling at him as his mouth bobbed and oh god it felt so good, he was almost there he just needed to push himself in just... a bit more...  
  
Jack woke with a start, sitting up in bed and almost falling over the side of the cot. He peeled the sticky sheets off of his body and grimaced. He really needed to stop this. Four times in the past week was way too much. Especially for a man who had left his teens behind more than a century ago.  
  
Sighing and heading towards the shower, Jack forced himself to realise that he had to have it out with Ianto, and it had to be soon.  
  
Seven hours later, he found himself walking with Ianto and Arthur towards the nearest city park. He had complained about the lack of invasion and then had finally rounded on Ianto and had demanded that they needed to talk.  
  
Jack wasn't sure if it was his charm, persona or perhaps just that Ianto was growing worse and had less resolve against him, but he had given in and suggested this trip to the park for Arthur. Jack himself was having a hard time looking at Ianto's mouth and thinking of anything except the wicked things it had done to him in his dreams.  
  
And he was having a devil of a time trying to look at anything except his mouth.  
  
When they got to the park, Arthur clapped his hands delightedly and ran off to go and ride on a teeter-totter.  
  
‘Look, Ianto...’  
  
‘I don't know what you expect to accomplish by this.’  
  
‘What do you mean?’  
  
‘I'm assuming that this talk has to either do with a) getting me to see Owen, b) getting me to see you or c) something to do with Arthur that I won't like and honestly, we can skip it. You know my feelings on a, and you certainly know how I feel about b, and I doubt there's anything you can say to c that would make me even remotely let you anywhere near my son.’  
  
Jack's mouth flopped open as Ianto excused himself to go and help push Arthur on one of the swings. Jack leaned back and watched as slowly a group of women began to surround Ianto, talking and asking him questions.  
  
Frustrated, Jack sighed and went to join Ianto at Arthur's side, coat swirling out around him.  
  
‘So where’s his mother then?’ one of the woman asked, clearly flirting for all she was worth.  
  
‘Oh... well, she’s... she died. In London, last Christmas,’ Ianto said, earning himself a chorus of “awww”s. ‘Her name was Lisa.’  
  
Jack nearly tripped over his own feet with disbelief. A huge enormous bubble of rage rose up inside him and almost without realising it, he had picked up Arthur in his arms for the first time and was storming off with him.  
  
‘Jack! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!’ Ianto’s voice yelled after him, but he kept walking and wouldn’t stop until he was far far away from the group of mothers.  
  
Ianto ran after him and grabbed him by the shoulder. ‘Jack!’  
  
He must have looked pretty wild, since Ianto immediately looked taken aback when he stopped and turned around to him, face bright red and his eyes near bulging. ‘He’s _my_ son! You hear me! Not hers, and don’t ever let me hear you say otherwise!’  
  
Soon enough, Ianto’s anger started to rise too. He stood his ground, arms folded in defiance. ‘Oh really? That’s not what you were saying yesterday, or the day before that, or any other day he’s been with us...’  
  
‘Well... well excuse me for taking some time to adjust to the idea!’ Jack wrapped his arms around Arthur, determined not to let him go, not when Ianto would take him away and cut him out of the kid’s life entirely. Arthur had to know who he belonged to at least.  
  
As Ianto moved closer, as if to take the child from his arms, he stepped back, half turning away to deny access. ‘Jack! Give me back my child!’  
  
‘He’s my child too.’  
  
‘You forfeited that right...’  
  
‘You don’t understand!’  
  
Ianto took a deep breath. ‘No, you’re right. I don’t. Because you won’t explain it to me.’ He forced himself to take on a slightly gentler tone because he could see the pain in Jack’s eyes and the conflict going on inside him, and sensed that he might finally be able to get through to him.  
  
‘I... I...’  
  
‘What? Jack, please just tell me.’  
  
‘I could be gone any minute,’ he said, and kicked himself for making no sense. ‘What I mean to say is, I’m waiting. For someone. I have been for decades. It’s why I’m at Torchwood. When he finally comes, then I’ll have to go. It could be now, it could be next week, it could be in a hundred years, but I will have to leave and I don’t know if I’d be able to come back. And I can’t get attached. I can’t... can’t hurt someone I love like that.’ Jack sat down on the grass, under the tree they had come to a stop beside and continued to hold onto Arthur like he was holding the most precious thing in the universe.  
  
Ianto uneasily sat down as well, eyes fixed on him like lasers. ‘Who are you waiting for?’  
  
‘That’s not important.’  
  
‘Alright. Then how long have you been waiting?’  
  
Jack looked up sharply and stared at him for a moment, as if deliberating what to say. ‘A long time. I... I’m not like you. I don’t age. I was a t-time traveller. From the 51st century. Long story but I kind of crashed back in 1890 and I’ve been waiting around ever since.’  
  
‘For another Time Traveller?’  
  
‘Something like that.’  
  
‘Wow. That’s... interesting,’ Ianto muttered, lost in his thoughts.  
  
‘Interesting?’ Jack repeated and chuckled. Trust Ianto to come up with something so bland sounding. ‘The point is, when he comes, I’ll have to leave. It’s possible to return but... I can’t make any promises. And if I get too attached...’ He looked down at Arthur, who was staring back with bright blue eyes which made his chest ache. ‘I’m not sure I could bear it.’  
  
Jack sighed and sat down, tree at his back and Ianto to his side as Arthur clapped and jumped around in his lap. ‘Daddy!’ he burbled excitedly, throwing his arms around Jack's neck and stretching to kiss his cheek. Jack knew then that, really, there was no point in trying to remain aloof; that this boy would make sure that he had his heart. ‘Alright, alright...’ Jack laughed softly, seeing Ianto smile a bit out of the corner of his eye.  
  
He didn't want to admit it to himself and he certainly wasn't going to admit it out loud, but there was a moment, in between the women gathering around Ianto and him telling them that Lisa was Arthur’s mother, when Jack had felt a tug in the bottom of his belly. Not for Arthur, but for Ianto. He blamed it on the dreams he kept having, but he couldn't get Ianto out of his mind. A naked Ianto, usually. Not that Jack normally was against this sort of thing in principal. It just made getting any sort of work done next to impossible when his secretary was triggering quite a few naughty ideas in his brain.  
  
‘You're good with kids,’ Ianto said, breaking the silence, watching Arthur curl up in Jack's arms, using his coat for a blanket.  
  
‘I...’ Jack debated on how much he felt like divulging to Ianto right there, but once started he couldn't seem to stop. ‘I was a father once,’ Jack murmured, looking down and brushing the hair out of Arthur's eyes.  
  
Ianto didn't seem surprised and just nodded. ‘We should head back to the Hub, I suspect he'll be wanting to eat soon.’ Jack stood, still cradling the child in his arms and turning to speak with Ianto.  
  
However Ianto was swaying on his feet, one hand on his head and one on the trunk of the tree to steady himself. ‘Ianto?’ Jack questioned, moving to reach out for him.  
  
‘I think... I think the heat may have been a bit much...’ he admitted, blinking up at Jack before crumpling onto the ground, eyes sliding closed.  
  
‘Ianto!’ He knelt over him and frantically checked his pulse and gauged his temperature. ‘Shit!’ Jack put Arthur down him and went for his phone, immediately calling Owen for backup.  
  
‘Hold on, Ianto, just hold on,’ he whispered, lifting him half into his arms. Arthur sat on the grass just out of arm’s reach, watching them, apparently trying to work out what was going on.  
  
*  
  
Jack paced back in forth in the med room as Owen took another set of tests, shaking his head before trying again. ‘Well?!’  
  
‘You know, yelling at me does not make me work faster, it only hurts my feelings and makes me cry,’ Owen muttered as he began hooking up different IV's.  
  
‘I was hoping it might get you motivated.’  
  
‘Nope, nothing I'm afraid will motivate me to move faster than I already am.’  
  
Jack grumbled and kissed into Arthur’s hair, bouncing on his toes to settle the toddler. Ianto had been unconscious for the past two hours and was not showing any signs of waking up. It worried Jack more than he cared to admit and he quickly rounded once more on Owen.  
  
‘Look, he's still the same as he was five minutes ago, okay?’ Jack frowned and ran a hand down Ianto's brow.  
  
‘Is it just heat exhaustion? Just ‘cause he was sick and it was hot outside right?’  
  
‘... I don't think so Jack.’ Owen finally admitted, handing over the test results. ‘I don't think so.’  
  
The tests showed Ianto's immune system was drastically low, his white blood cell count was worrying and he had a long list of other infections attacking his system.  
  
‘What...?’  
  
‘Honestly, this looks a lot like radiation poisoning,’ Owen sighed, leaning against Ianto's table as he tried to get a hold of his brain that kept skittering off. ‘Nerve damage, immune deficiency... not to mention a few other things I've never seen.’  
  
‘So what do we do?’  
  
‘Nothing.’  
  
‘What do you mean nothing? We can't just leave him like this!’ Jack yelled.  
  
‘We have to. I have nothing for him!’ Owen yelled back. ‘There is no cure for that. It's like he took 50,000 X-rays to the chest and there is nothing to counter that!’ The look of horror on Jack’s face made him back down a little. ‘Look, I can mix up a cocktail of drugs to slow it down and lessen the pain but it’s all downhill from here. Based on the what we’ve observed so far, I’d give him two or three weeks before he’s practically incapacitated. Then maybe another week or two before...’  
  
‘No, this isn’t going to happen,’ Jack said, with more certainty than he felt. ‘We won’t let this happen to him. It was that alien device, whatever the hell it was, I know it.’  
  
Owen nodded. ‘Yeah, I’d say the same thing, but that’s more Tosh’s department. My money would be on the fact that it probably wasn’t meant for human consumption, except that it doesn’t seem to have affected you.’  
  
‘Ah well, I’m not... it wouldn’t,’ he said, praying Owen would let him leave it at that.  
  
Which the doctor did, though he crooked up an eyebrow on the way to dropping it. He’d worn that expression quite a few times since the incident with Lisa, when Owen had seen her knock him out (actually, she had killed him, but he hadn’t told Owen that) and the doctor had fussed over him later, only to find him in perfect health so far as Jack would let himself be examined.  
  
Jack stood over Ianto, thinking how beautiful he looked despite the thin pallor of his skin and his dark and sunken eyes. He brushed a few errant hairs back from his forehead, sadness running through his veins.  
  
Arthur reached for him too, though his arm was too short for him to actually touch him, as close as Jack was standing. So instead he pointed. ‘Daddy no,’ he said, and reached for him more.  
  
‘Daddy’s sick,’ Jack said and had to turn away to stop himself from being overcome with emotion. ‘It’s okay, we’ll find a cure. There has to be a way to reverse it. There has to be.’ He blinked hard and turned back to Owen. ‘How long until he wakes up?’  
  
‘No idea. I think it’s exhaustion more than anything else.’  
  
‘Maybe it’s better to let him rest then?’  
  
The doctor nodded and patted Jack on the shoulder, offering a little comfort, scant though it was.  
  
‘Owen, don’t tell him,’ Jack said, gripped by a sudden urgency in his voice. ‘He can’t know.’  
  
‘But...’  
  
‘We _are_ going to find a cure. Telling him will do no good. Not for him, or for Arthur. Tell him he’s ill, tell him he needs to rest, or whatever, but don’t tell him anything more than he needs to know. Not yet. Okay?’  
  
Conflict rose in Owen’s face and he looked as though he was going to argue. Instead he just sighed and nodded. ‘You’re the boss. But if it becomes a matter of medical need, I’ll have to.’  
  
Jack nodded, knowing he’d have to settle for that.  
  
*  
  
Ianto slowly woke, blinking in his surroundings, clearly trying to remember how got back to the Hub and onto Owen's med table. ‘Good to see you awake...’ Jack's voice was hoarse and he looked exhausted but he smiled at Ianto, and Ianto couldn't help smiling back.  
  
He sat up, just noticing the multiple IV's in his arm and shooting Jack a look as he helped Arthur climbed up into his father’s lap.  
  
‘You passed out when we were at the park... Owen says... Owen says it’s just a bug but you're not getting the nutrients you need to fight it off so...’  
  
Ianto nodded and turned his attentions back on Arthur. ‘Hey there big guy...’  
  
‘Daddy.’ It seemed to be the only word Arthur knew as he threw his arms around Ianto's neck and held on him tightly.  
  
‘Arthur was worried about you,’ Jack said softly, moving a chair so he could sit by Ianto. ‘So was I...’ He said softer and Ianto looked at him surprised.  
  
‘I know, caring about your team right?’  
  
‘No, that's not what I meant...’ Jack shook his head. ‘Forget it.’ The two of them sat in companionable silence, letting Arthur talk on and on in his own language as the two of them just looked at one another.  
  
‘How are you feeling? I can go get Owen...’  
  
‘No, I'm fine... Just... Stay.’ Ianto said softly, his fingers curled around Jack's wrist. Jack smiled and sat down by Ianto again in the chair. He sat back and watched Ianto play with Arthur, tickling him, bouncing him and holding his hands to help him dance, crooning some Welsh songs for comic effect, laughing along.  
  
But it was an empty laugh. All he could think was, _what am I going to do if I lose him?_ Now he’d opened the floodgates and accepted the fact that he couldn’t run from what had happened to them, and he’d accepted Arthur as a part of him, despite his better judgement, the prospect of raising the child alone filled him with terror. And that was before he could even approach the deep well of hurt he felt at the thought of losing Ianto.  
  
There had been a reason he had not sent Ianto away after he had screwed up so royally by bringing Lisa into Torchwood Three. He had always liked Ianto, on a personal level. The guy was funny and smart and sweet. Despite outwards appearances, he didn’t flirt to such levels with just anybody; he’d done that with him because he’d liked Ianto for all kinds of reasons. Of course, he was also really hot; that was an issue which had been haunting him more and more recently.  
  
None of that meant much to him now though. Ianto may have started to look like a walking corpse of late, but Jack was certain he had never seen him look as beautiful as he did playing father. It exposed the inner core of Ianto so perfectly.  
  
It was that inner core which was attracting him now, not the seemliness of the outer shell, as visceral as his dreams could be on that topic. All Jack knew was, he needed him, any way he could get him.  
  
He couldn’t lose him. He just couldn’t.  
  
‘Jack? Hello?’  
  
Jack blinked and looked at him. ‘Huh?’  
  
‘You were miles away,’ Ianto teased, smiling.  
  
‘Oh not _too_ many miles away, I promise.’  
  
‘I just said, it’s getting late. Arthur will have a tantrum if he isn’t fed soon and trust me, you don’t want to see that, does he Arthur?’ He tickled the boy’s belly, eliciting a giggling squeal. ‘Do you want to come back to mine... help put him to bed?’  
  
The Captain smiled, warmly, feeling huge relief that Ianto was going to allow him to help out. Perhaps he was going to be allowed to make up for his reticence after all, now that Ianto appeared to have calmed down a little. Or maybe he just needed the help, Jack wasn’t sure.  
  
‘I know Arthur would like that.’ There was a cute little blush on Ianto’s cheeks which made Jack’s stomach flip flop.  
  
‘Sure,’ he said, and basked in the smile that earned him.  
  
Ianto handed Arthur over and stiffly got to his feet. At first he was a little wobbly but he soon regained his composure. ‘Okay, let’s go.’  
  
*  
  
Jack had tried to insist that Ianto should rest and that he could make them all dinner, but Ianto had been reluctant to give Jack free reign of his kitchen just yet. ‘Ianto, are you sure there's nothing I can do...?’  
  
‘It's boiling spaghetti,’ Ianto deadpanned, forcing Jack back out into the den where his son was chewing absent-mindedly on Draig. ‘Even in my weakened state, I can do that. You go make sure Arthur doesn't start eating the drapes or something...’  
  
Jack sighed but relented, plopping himself down beside Arthur and smiling when the child crawled into his lap. ‘Hi there, how are you?’  
  
‘Daddy!’ Arthur bounced excitedly and Jack chuckled softly as the boy yawned and curled up on his chest, his fingers in his mouth and his other hand curled tightly on his dragon. Jack ran his hand through the young one's hair, humming softly as he listened to the domestic sounds of Ianto puttering away in the kitchen.  
  
It all sounded so normal, like this was something they did everyday; their own little family. Arthur was heavy and warm on his chest, a soothing weight and Jack couldn't imagine a time when he denied who the child was.  
  
‘He looks so much like you.’ Ianto said, quietly, surprising him by coming in and moving to sit down beside them.  
  
‘I think he looks more like you actually...’  
  
‘Well, the hair and the nose may be mine, but that smile and those eyes, so full of mischief... Those are all yours Jack.’ Ianto smiled down at his son, one hand going through his hair. Jack smiled softly as he looked at Ianto, feeling his own heart bottom out when Ianto's eyes lift up to his, that soft smile still on his lips. Moving slowly, Jack cupped the side of Ianto's face before leaning in and pressing his lips to Ianto's just softly.  
  
Ianto looked a little puzzled when Jack pulled back, but the smile was still there. ‘I...’ he began, and chuckled, ‘I didn’t see that coming.’  
  
‘Well... it seemed like the thing to do.’  
  
Arthur giggled, beaming his stolen grin. His laughter and excitement was infectious.  
  
‘He seems to agree with me,’ Jack observed.  
  
‘Um... I don’t want you to think I’m not...’ Ianto’s expression turned pained. ‘It’s too soon,’ he said. ‘I can’t. Maybe when... when I’m feeling better, and we’ve spent some more time together. Maybe then. Just not...’  
  
‘Not now.’ He managed to hide the fear those words inspired behind a warm smile.  
  
‘You know I’ve always...’ Ianto began, and then caught himself. ‘Even when Lisa was... I couldn’t help... thinking about it. N-not seriously but... okay, I’m digging myself into a hole here!’  
  
‘No, I understand. I do.’ Jack shrugged. ‘It’s just... I’ve learned that sometimes waiting isn’t the best thing to do. Tomorrow doesn’t always happen the way you expect it to.’ For a moment, he seriously contemplated telling Ianto the truth about what was making him ill.  
  
The problem was, he just couldn’t bear to. It would feel too much like giving in and admitting that, maybe, they couldn’t fix it. Jack wasn’t ready to do that yet.  
  
‘I know but...’ Ianto struggled for words until Jack pressed a finger to his lips and shook his head to say, there was no need. He smiled his gratitude. ‘I’d better see to the food. You watch Arthur.’  
  
‘Sure.’  
  
Jack watched him go, letting worry cloud his eyes as he noticed how Ianto limped from pain and how much thinner he looked than the last time Jack looked. Arthur was watching him with a careful expression, as if he was trying to gage Jack's reactions.  
  
‘Not now little buddy,’ Jack said, pretending as if he could read his thoughts. Jack understood Ianto's need for taking a bit more time, first Lisa, then Arthur and well, he could see why Ianto would want to give himself a bit of emotional distance before falling into anything else. Jack was just worried that he would never get the chance to know what it would have been like to have known him better.  
  
Smiling sadly, Jack picked Arthur up and took him into the kitchen to tease Ianto as he finished with dinner.  
  
Two steaming plates of spaghetti bolognaise were served up on the table and Jack was invited to tuck in while the chef chopped up and cooled down some of the dish for Arthur. By the time that was done, Jack had nearly eaten all of his, so he took on the task of playing aeroplane-spoon and choo-choo-train-spoon to feed him while Ianto moved his food around the plate, not eating all that much, before covertly rushing off to throw up.  
  
Then they let Arthur watch some Bob the Builder on DVD to wear him out, before Ianto changed his nappy and got him into his pyjamas. By the time they carried him upstairs, he was almost falling asleep. They went into the spare room, where Arthur’s cot had been placed by the end of the single bed. ‘I hope you don’t mind sharing your room,’ Ianto said, jokingly. ‘He’s very good. Doesn’t tend to wake up in the night all that often.’  
  
Jack smiled and shook his head. He let Ianto lay their little boy down. Then he slipped Draig under his arm and tucked him in. ‘Night night. Sweet dreams little one,’ Jack said, kissing him on the forehead.  
  
Ianto leaned into him as they watched him go to sleep together, and Jack put his arm around his back. He blushed a little as Ianto kissed him gently on the cheek and wished him goodnight, before padding across the landing to the master bedroom.  
  
‘Goodnight everyone,’ Jack muttered to himself as he lay down to rest, letting go of the creeping sense of dread, just a little, in order to appreciate the feeling of having some kind of family again. It had been too long.


	6. Chapter 6

Jack double checked the pram for the fifth time they entered the fairground. ‘Captain Jack Harkness, we're here with Torchwood, plus one,’ Jack announced their arrival to what he hoped was someone in charge of more than just ticket sales and cotton candy.   
  
‘What's with the kid?’ The man had a cigar in one side of his mouth, what looked like chewing tobacco on the other and enough grease in his hair to change the oil in the SUV.  
  
‘Well, he's our plus one,’ Owen drawled, his gun was holstered but he made no show of hiding it as he leaned up against the baby stroller. Arthur, for his part, was holding Draig close and clapping his hands excitedly as he watched the clowns go by.   
  
The man just grunted in what they assumed was an accepting manner. ‘Graves is in the back. Fourth trailer from the right.’ Jack nodded and led his team towards the back of the fairground.   
  
Gilbert Graves was one of a very few number of registered aliens living and working around Cardiff. It was all very Men in Black, but it hadn't been Jack's practice to turn down honest refugees when they were fleeing from a corrupt system (now, evil raxacoricophallipatorians living inside of a skin suit bent on total earth melt down via nuclear power plant on the rift, that was something he didn't quite have a soft spot for) and he had set up a small relocation system that enabled these aliens to blend in with human society.   
  
Torchwood kept tabs on them of course, making sure they weren't drawing unnecessary attention to themselves, standing on soap boxes and preaching about the benefits of human enslavement to a superior alien race, or levitating instead of walking; just generally keeping them from taking over the earth. It also meant monitoring how and where they went as well.  
  
Jack rapped on the door, waiting around for Gilbert to show before turning to Ianto and Arthur. ‘You two can head off for a bit if you want, Gilbert's not much of a difficult one to break.’ Jack smiled softly at Ianto who was leaning heavily against Arthur's pram. The man had gotten steadily worse throughout the week. He grew tired easily now and Jack was beginning to doubt that he was keeping any sort of food down.   
  
But when Ianto had brought up the idea of taking Arthur with them to the funfair when they went to check on Gilbert, Jack hadn't had the heart to tell him no. After all, Tosh was getting nowhere trying to figure out where the alien baby-maker was from, or in powering it up again, and Owen could only do so much from a medical angle.  
  
‘Yeah, you want to go see the animals don't you buddy?’ Jack asked, grinning brightly as he squatted down to Arthur's level.   
  
‘ 'nimals!’ Arthur agreed happily, clapping his hands and bouncing in his seat. Jack grinned back up at Ianto, leaning forward to kiss the top of Arthur's head.   
  
‘We'll contact you when we're done, don't get into any trouble.’ Ianto rolled his eyes at Jack's worrying and he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Ianto's cheek as well; something that had gotten almost customary for him. The he turned to face Gilbert in the doorway.  
  
The alien took one look at him and the team and his face fell. ‘Ahhh! Oh oh oh... Captain...’  
  
‘Hello Gilbert,’ Jack said, pleasantly, fixing him with his most manic grin.  
  
‘Oh man, uh... didn’t expect to see you. How uh... nice,’ he said, wriggling, his accent veering between heavy Welsh and something inexplicable.   
  
Jack chuckled and pushed past him into his caravan and took a seat inside. Gilbert looked distinctly uncomfortable, but he budged and let the rest of the team follow. ‘Um... tea?’ he offered, quaintly. ‘Toshiko, Owen, Suzie...?’  
  
‘Gwen,’ she corrected him, quickly.  
  
‘Oh, sorry.’ He squinted at her. ‘Human females all look the same to me. Not sure why. I think it’s a smell thing, it confuses my optical sensors. And then there’s the problem with all the perfumes you seem to wear. Makes my eyeballs spin round in the sockets some days, it does. Actually, I can prove that if you want...’  
  
‘Gilbert.’ The raised eyebrow from the Captain told him that there was no point in stalling.   
  
‘Okay, look, I’m sorry I’m outside my permit boundaries. It wasn’t my idea!’ he protested, weakly.  
  
‘The deal specifically stated that you stay out of Cardiff so the rift energy doesn’t... you know.’  
  
‘What?’ Gwen asked, pouting because she was the only one who clearly didn’t know what he was talking about. They hadn’t really done much of a debrief since there had been no point in hiding the fact that it was mostly just a rouse to go to the fair.  
  
‘Rift energy can have the unfortunate effect of making his kind... spontaneously reproduce,’ Jack said, smirking.   
  
‘Only in certain seasons!’ Gilbert insisted. ‘Look, I’ve been working with this fair for over a year now. I’m doing well. Going up the ranks. It wasn’t going to come to Cardiff central but we had a schedule change. I could hardly say “sorry boss, that might possibly make me start shooting alien babies out of my nose”, now could I?!’  
  
‘I’ve heard worse excuses,’ Jack chuckled.  
  
‘We’ve had some similar ones from the Captain lately, as a matter of fact,’ Owen chipped in, laughing to himself until Toshiko’s elbow collided with his ribcage. He glared at her and muttered under his breath about how people were always assaulting him.  
  
‘Captain, it’s not in season. We’re only here for three days. I thought it wouldn’t do any harm.’ Gilbert looked at him imploringly. ‘Please let me stay? I love this job, I do.’  
  
Jack gave him a rather serious look, which included the finger point of ultimate seriousness. ‘Fine. But...’ he paused, a smirk playing at the edge of his lips, ‘if you start spontaneously reproducing, it's your responsibility to take care of them.’  
  
Owen chuckled and Toshiko snorted, Gwen just frowned and shifted on her feet. ‘Go, do whatever it is you do Gilbert,’ Jack chuckled and watched the small man totter away happily. He fished into his pocket, pulling out his cell phone and hitting the number 2 quick dial.   
  
‘Alright, where are you then?’ Jack hopped down the stairs, the other team members following close behind in a huddle.   
  
‘Over by the animal cages, what do you think?’   
  
Jack grinned and headed off towards the other side of the carnival, a bounce in his step that hadn't been there before.   
  
‘I think fatherhood rather becomes Jack,’ Toshiko said to Owen, stopping to purchase a rather large bag of candyfloss. Gwen, Owen and Tosh had decided to give the fathers a bit of alone time with their son before catching back up with them, also taking a bit of time to explore the funfair and their own inner five year olds.   
  
‘Well, it took him long enough...’ Owen muttered, munching on a toffee apple as they wandered through the various vendors and displays.  
  
Gwen still had the frown on her face from before. ‘You don't think that it's a bad idea not telling Ianto how serious his disease is? And did you notice how ahh... close he and Ianto have become?’  
  
Tosh looked at Owen who looked back at her before they both looked over at Gwen with matching quizzical expressions.   
  
‘I just thought it was a bad idea is all...’ Gwen muttered, scuffing her shoe in the dirt.   
  
‘Hi there gorgeous,’ Jack teased, giving another kiss to Ianto's cheek before bending and picking Arthur up. ‘And hello there buddy, what have you seen so far?’   
  
‘ 'lephants!’ Arthur said, pointing to a toy-vendor. He made the noise like the elephants, his arm for the trunk as Jack laughed broadly, his eyes slipping from Arthur to smile softly at Ianto.   
  
‘There are horses, there are monkeys, there are even rides. So what does he get excited about? The toy elephants in the machine,’ Ianto said, and rolled eyes. Only the upturn at the corner of his lips betrayed his true amusement.   
  
Owen swaggered over to the toy-vendor machine and put in a quid. ‘Let’s see if we can’t get him one then.’ He cracked his knuckles and tried to direct the claw well enough to grab one of the toys. ‘Watch the Master at work.’  
  
When he managed to fail four times in a row, Jack handed Arthur over to his dad and pushed Owen out of the way. He coughed and scratched covertly around his wristband a little before taking over on the last go.   
  
The claw practically operated itself, snaring on of the toys by the ear and dropping it down the chute. Jack grabbed it with glee and took it over to Arthur with a flourish.   
  
Arthur tried to take the toy, but couldn’t manage it holding Draig as well. So Ianto took the dragon from his hand and passed it along. Arthur held the elephant for a moment and then dropped it, reaching out for Draig instead. He started kicking and whining when the toy wasn’t immediately given back.   
  
‘Arthur, that’s not very nice! Daddy just won that for you,’ Ianto said, patiently, before giving up and giving him back his favourite dragon for the sake of keeping the peace.  
  
The elephant was picked up and put in the back of the pushchair by Gwen. ‘Now what?’ she asked. ‘Back to the Hub?’  
  
‘Nah, I think we’ve earned an hour or two to ourselves,’ Jack said, one arm snaking around Ianto’s back. ‘You three go and have fun and we’ll meet back up at the entrance, unless there’s an emergency before then.’  
  
The other three didn’t need to be told twice and hurried away to enjoy their time at the funfair, seeking out rides and stalls like excited children.  
  
Ianto smiled towards Jack, a little shyly, not quite able to hide how much he liked the way Jack was going out of his way to make him happy and to look after him lately. It was nice. The three of them together, like a real family, was nice. ‘What about us?’  
  
‘I was thinking, miniature teacup rides first of all,’ Jack informed him, grinning. He took possession of the pushchair and they pushed through the crowds to the ride.   
  
Since Arthur wasn’t tall enough to sit on the ride himself, Ianto helped him on and sat down with him, looking pretty awkward in the tiny teacup due to his long legs. He yelled out to Jack to get his camera out of the pushchair and made a show of enjoying the ride.  
  
Jack hung back, taking pictures, feeling a swell of love and pride in his chest so strong it almost overwhelmed him.  
  
‘I think I got a good number of pictures I can later use for blackmail.’ Jack teased as they came off the ride. He tossed Ianto the camera and swung Arthur up and into his arms. Jack was oblivious to the look on the faces of passers-by as they watched with happy expressions, father playing with son.   
  
They got pretty much the same reaction wherever they went and whatever ride they went on, since Arthur was such a bundle of laughing, squealing energy and naturally gathered a lot of attention.  
  
‘Any other rides you can think of to take him on?’ Jack asked as they went by the tea cup ride again and towards the dragon train.  
  
‘Dragon!’ Arthur demanded, clapping his hands before pointing to the child-size dragon plush toy being sold nearby.   
  
‘Arthur, you have a dragon,’ Ianto admonished, holding up Draig as proof. Arthur made the “gimmie, gimmie” noise and hand motions as he clutched the plush from Ianto's hands.  
  
‘Big dragon!’ Arthur demanded once more, his face screwing up in what looked like a pout and a fuss.   
  
‘Well, what the boy wants...’ Jack said, lifting the child in the air and tossing him up high and catching him.  
  
‘Jack...’ Ianto trailed off, a look on his face of weariness slowly transforming to happiness as he watched Jack playing with Arthur, ‘quit spoiling him.’ Ianto finally relented and laughed as Arthur squealed with happiness as Jack blew raspberries on his belly.   
  
Jack turned to Ianto with an unusual expression on his own face. ‘He's my son, who else do I have to spoil?’ Jack grinned brightly and handed the boy over before jogging over to the dragon vendor, gesturing with large hands to the really BIG dragon and then pointing over to his son.   
  
The vendor laughed and handed the dragon over as Jack handed him some money.   
  
‘Dragon! Dragon! BIG DRAGON!’ Arthur squealed as Jack came back, holding out the large dragon for him.  
  
Arthur squirmed out of Ianto's hands and ran over, tackling the dragon that was the same size as him. Ianto snorted and then laughed as Jack pulled him into a hug.   
  
‘I hate to break up this touching moment,’ the unmistakable voice of Owen sounded behind them, causing Jack to spin all three of them around to him, ‘but the Big Top Show is about to start, and the girls are holding a place in the line. It’s the last one of the day.’  
  
Ianto looked enthusiastic but Jack pulled a bit of a face.   
  
‘What, don’t you want to go?’ Ianto asked, curious and a bit put out.  
  
‘No, it’s just... clowns,’ Jack replied and shuddered.   
  
Owen snorted and Ianto laughed. Arthur looked perplexed, so he quickly gave up trying to figure out what was going on and turned his attention towards attempting to eat the dragon toy’s ear instead.  
  
‘Clowns are...’ Again, Jack shuddered and shook his head. ‘There’s something about them. Makes my skin crawl.’  
  
‘Let me get this straight,’ Owen guffawed. ‘Weevils, you have no problem with. That six-armed bird you were telling us about, who wanted to eat your skin after you screwed her, you were fine with. But clowns, bloody innocuous clowns, fill you with fear?’  
  
‘No,’ Jack gave him an irritated glare. ‘I’m not _afraid_ of them. I just don’t _like_ them. Big difference.’  
  
Owen just gave Jack a rather bemused look as he scooped Arthur up, tickling his stomach and telling him all about the things he and Gwen and Tosh had seen around the fair.   
  
Jack grinned over at Ianto and put the rather large dragon into the pram, wrapping his arm around Ianto's middle. ‘Looks like it's just you and me,’ he teased, following Owen as he led them over to where Tosh and Gwen stood in line.   
  
Ianto smiled and leaned just a bit onto Jack's stronger frame, letting him support him just a bit while they sat down to watch the Big Top Show.   
  
Arthur soon crawled off of Owen's lap and onto Ianto's, bouncing up and down happily as he watched the clowns and trapeze artists bound back and forth across the high wires. Jack tried to keep his dislike of the clowns to a minimum, even to the point where he allowed one clown to make him a rather ridiculous balloon hat.  
  
‘I think the hat rather becomes you, Boss,’ Owen supplied, resting against the back of the bench, his arms around both Tosh and Gwen in a rather possessive pose.   
  
‘Yes well, just remember who controls the weevil cage cleaning rota,’ Jack grumbled, smiling down at Arthur and depositing the hat on his head.   
  
Ianto smiled happily, feeling that familiar bubble of happiness well up inside him every time he watched Jack interacting with Arthur. ‘You're so good with kids,’ he murmured, laughing quietly as Arthur turned his attention from Jack back to the ring.   
  
‘Well, it helps not acting like much more than a kid sometimes,’ he teased back, throwing some peanuts at Owen, who took that moment to start whistling at them.  
  
‘So the Big Top Show is over, we've gone on every suitable ride...’ Ianto stretched as they exited the tent.  
  
‘Not every ride...’ Jack grinned and grabbed Ianto's hand, dragging him over to the Ferris wheel. ‘Still have just enough tickets for one more. Care to join me?’  
  
Ianto turned around and waited for the others to catch up. He looked to Toshiko, silently asking her to lend a hand. She smiled, sweetly, and took Arthur from Jack’s arms.   
  
Then Jack grabbed his hand and pulled him onto the clunking metal platform at the bottom of it. The operator helped them into one of the seats and closed the bar around them. The wheel was moved around a bit, and Owen and Gwen got into the next seat.  
  
A few more couples got on before the gate was closed. Some cheesy fairground music started up and the wheel settled into a gentle pace.   
  
When they reached the top for the first time, Jack pointed out to the side. ‘We can see the Millennium Centre from here.’  
  
‘Oh yeah!’ Ianto chuckled. ‘I’m quite glad we’re not there, though.’  
  
‘Yeah?’  
  
‘It’s been a good day. Thank you.’   
  
The look on his face made Jack’s heart zing in his chest.   
  
The second time the wheel turned and they hit the top, Ianto shivered. It was getting quite chilly and the higher up they went the worse it was. So Jack extended his coat, offering to share his warmth. After a moment of incredulous protest, Ianto shuffled closer and leaned into him, allowing Jack to nearly enclose him.   
  
Jack held him tightly and kissed his head. He felt, rather than saw, the smile which that produced.  
  
The next time they were on their way up, Jack looked over to check on Arthur and spotted a familiar face chatting with Toshiko. At first he wasn’t sure what to make of it, and liked it even less when she pointed up at them and the man seemed to laugh.   
  
He skipped over the gate and went to speak to the ride operator. Suddenly the music ground to a halt and there was an eerie silence, filled only with the creaking sound of the wheel turning.   
  
Then suddenly, a new tune sounded out. It made Jack grin. It was “I Only Have Eyes for You” by the Flamingos - the most romantic song ever written, in his opinion; he’d told Tosh as much once when it had come on the radio and he’d insisted on dancing with her, much to her embarrassment.  
  
When they neared the bottom, Gilbert waved and smiled broadly. Jack chuckled and waved back, thanking him for the consideration.  
  
Even though he didn’t see the exchange, Ianto smiled as well. Jack thought most of the people on the wheel were probably doing the same.   
  
After a few moments appreciating the classic old song, he started to sing along, quietly with his mouth pressed close to Ianto’s ear. ‘ _Are the stars out tonight? I don’t know if it’s cloudy or bright. I only have eyes for you..._ ’  
  
Ianto laughed and turned his head to Jack, eyes sparkling. ‘Same here,’ he whispered.   
  
Although he didn’t know how it would be taken, there was no force on earth which could have prevented Jack from closing the distance and capturing Ianto’s mouth in a kiss. This time, it was taken and returned in kind, Ianto’s hands sliding up to cup his cheeks and hold onto him. It was bliss, plain and simple, and more incredible than Jack ever thought it would be, even in his dreams.  
  
When it finally ended, Jack pressed their foreheads together, trying not to let the sudden swell of emotion overwhelm him. The pain of not knowing if they were going to be able to beat this illness or not in time was a constant concern, and this made it so much worse.   
  
Ianto leaned back against him, looking out into the skies, content just to be held, unaware of the anguish threatening to overpower Jack.  
  
*  
  
‘I do believe we wore the poor guy out,’ Jack chuckled, quietly. Arthur was fast asleep in his arms, head resting on Jack's shoulder, sucking on a few of his fingers.   
  
‘Well, he had a rather big day.’ Ianto looked tired as well, the circles under his eyes becoming a bit more pronounced and having that sway in his step that said he was barely still on his feet. He had the large dragon under one arm and in the other he was carrying the ever faithful Draig and the newly acquired ‘lephant.   
  
‘Mm, that he did. Still, I think he enjoyed it.’ Jack gently set his son on his bed, trying to gently pull the clothes off a limp toddler but finding the task increasingly difficult.   
  
‘Here, I can help.’ Between the two of them, they slowly got Arthur into his pyjamas and laid him down in his cot, Draig tucked under one arm and Big Dragon and ‘lephant resting by his head.   
  
‘Well, goodnight.’ Ianto said softly, stalling and not really wanting to retire to his own bed with as cold and big as it was.  
  
‘I'm glad you enjoyed the day.’ Jack smiled, and pulled Ianto into a loose embrace, holding him close as he gently kissed him goodnight. With a wink, Jack let Ianto go and went back into the room with Arthur, making sure as to not make any noise as he climbed into his own bed.   
  
He had lain there for awhile, feeling the edges of sleep slowly coming to him, when his door creaked back open. ‘Yan?’ he murmured, sleepily, and looked up to see his outline framed by the small light that Ianto kept on in the hall.   
  
‘I... I can't get warm. So, so cold.’ His teeth were literally chattering and Jack was up in a flash, a hand to his forehead. He was burning up.  
  
‘Come here.’ Jack pulled Ianto into the guest bed, quickly heading into Ianto's own room for an extra fluffy duvet before returning and adding it on top of Ianto. Then he lay down with him and wrapped him up in his arms. ‘This helping?’ Ianto nodded, teeth still chattering but he was no longer shivering. ‘I got you. Go to sleep.’ Jack kissed the top of his head and held Ianto close as they both slipped away into their dreams.


	7. Chapter 7

Ianto gasped and shuddered the moment Jack’s lips touched the head of his erection and slowly drew it into his perfect mouth. ‘P-p-please,’ he gasped, every muscle in his stomach rippling with the effort of holding fast, as a lethal tongue lavished him with pleasure. ‘Jack... oh oh Jack...’  
  
Suddenly Jack was pulling back and crawling over him. He knew that all he had to do was hook his legs around him and hold on tight. Strong hands lifted his hips and a gently wicked mouth pressed against his neck. ‘Do you love me?’ he asked.  
  
‘Yes,’ Ianto replied without hesitation. ‘Always. I always will.’  
  
Jack’s hard body pressed down against him, warm like a blanket. ‘Always?’ Without warning pistoned forwards, fingers pressing into Ianto’s shoulders. Hard, too hard.  
  
It made Ianto cry out and struggle against him.  
  
‘Always, Ianto?’ Jack asked again, insistently, face strangely blank.  
  
‘Yes but... I can’t like this...’ Every movement was pain, crushing pain in his belly. Yet he couldn’t move or fight. He was too weak by far. ‘Please stop! Please!’  
  
Ianto gasped awake with tears on his cheeks and painful cramps in his stomach. The latter had obviously been bleeding into his dream. He gasped for air and forced himself to stay perfectly still until they had died down enough for him to get up. The last thing he wanted to do was wake up Jack and have him worry even more than he did already.  
  
He managed to roll out of the bed without making a sound. After all, he was getting used to this. Every day seemed to bring nothing but aches, pains and nausea. Ianto knew he couldn’t hide the true extent of his sickness forever; last night, when he’d suddenly had an attack of chills, had demonstrated that fact.   
  
For a few moments, he watched over Jack, not sure whether to feel embarrassed over the fact that his boss had become a regular feature in his more salacious dreams or just sad that he’d never get to try them out for real. It was hard to believe that, only a month ago, he had wanted the man dead. Now, after spending so much time with him, watching the cold heart within melt to reveal his true caring nature, he couldn’t bear the thought of ever losing him.   
  
If it weren’t for his constant sickness, he thought life might actually be nearing perfection. The love he felt for Arthur was more than he could describe; so overwhelming he feared it could simply burst out of him if he let it. Nothing could compare. Even Lisa, his precious Lisa, was mostly forgotten now. Ianto had never known anything like the overwhelming need to care for this child before.   
  
And then there was Jack. Despite their initial problems, the shell had cracked and a new man was emerging. This Jack was goofy, fun, sweet and charming; a far more carefree man than ever he was before. He preferred romantic gestures to lewd innuendos. He preferred playing with Lego to brooding in his office. He even willingly did the shopping sometimes, which never failed to surprise Ianto.  
  
It was all so domestic and nice. Ianto wasn’t sure if their odd little unit really qualified as a family, but it really was beginning to feel like that.  
  
Except for his illness, whatever it was. Ianto was getting the feeling that Owen might be holding out on him. Or maybe the doctor just wasn’t doing his job properly. Whatever he had, it was worse than a cold. The heady duty cocktail of drugs the doctor was whacking him with every morning testified to that.   
  
Ianto quietly drifted into the spare room and stood of Arthur’s cot. His boy, his little miracle; the very picture of himself and Jack combined. Seeing him steeled his nerves somewhat and made him come to a decision.  
  
Quickly he dressed for work and left a note on his side of the bed, apologising for leaving without them. On the way out to the car, he called Owen.  
  
His call was met by a torrent of grumpy abuse, which seemed to indicate that he had woken him up. ‘What the bloody hell? It’s fucking six thirty in the fucking morning! What the fuck do you want, you twat? And don’t say the world is coming to an end, I don’t fucking care before eight.’   
  
*  
  
Jack slowly awoke to a cold bed. Now, while he was used to the whole cold bed syndrome, he was quite positive that he had indeed, fallen asleep with a very warm and immediately snuggable Ianto, but there appeared to be an Ianto-shaped hole now in his bed.   
  
Waiting until his mind was processing whole ideas instead of just vague fuzzy notions, Jack slowly sat up and noticed the note taped to the mirror opposite his bed. Shuffling over, he peeled it off and grinned. He could recognize Ianto's messy loose scrawl any day.   
  
Reading back over the note, Jack's smile slowly turned into a frown; he hadn't had to get Arthur ready on his own yet and he wondered if he would be up for the challenge this morning.   
  
Off in his own room, Arthur decided to make it known that he was awake and he was hungry.   
  
‘Why, there you are.’ Jack picked his son up and nestled him against one hip as he went into the living room and plopped the boy right on the couch. Jack flipped through the channels before finally settling on something that looked vaguely cartoonish.   
  
‘Daddy...?’ Arthur looked a bit confused as he looked around for Ianto and Jack had to plop the boy back on the couch.  
  
‘Yes, I know Daddy doesn't let you watch TV in the mornings, but cool Daddy needs to go take a shower first, alright?’ Arthur seemed pacified and snuggled back down on the couch to watch cartoons as Jack went off to use the shower.   
  
The rest of the morning went by rather slowly as Jack tried to make sure he had everything taken care of but he hadn't had to worry about the domestic side of things in so long, he was quickly finding himself forgetting some of the more basic homeowner rules (such as, don't assume all ovens and stove tops are Julion and will turn off on their own) and it took longer than normal, but eventually Jack had both himself, Arthur and Draig, dressed and in the car.   
  
‘Daddy!!’ Arthur clapped, squirming in Jack's arms as they entered the Hub. Jack rolled his eyes and set the little boy down, watching as he bounded over to where Ianto was laying on the medical table.  
  
‘Oh yeah, I help get him ready and he doesn't even care at all about me.’ Jack deposited Draig on Tosh's desk before moving over to Ianto with a frown. ‘You feeling worse Yan?’  
  
Ianto just shrugged and gave him a tense, fake smile. He looked extremely worn out as he sat up and lifted Arthur up onto the table beside him.   
  
‘Jack, can I um...’ Owen began, pointing aside to indicate he wanted to speak to him alone.  
  
Not sure what to do, Jack kissed Ianto on the forehead apologetically and followed the doctor across the Hub to a corner out of view.   
  
‘I’m not sure how much longer we can keep this from him,’ Owen said, with a sense of haste in his voice. ‘He knows something is up and I think he’s twigged I’m not telling him everything. I mean, fuck - look at him.’  
  
Jack winced. ‘We’ll find a way to...’ he began, as he always did. It was becoming a mantra.  
  
‘What if we don’t?’ Owen cut him off, voice strained but kept at a quiet whisper. ‘Look, I’m sorry, but his time is running out and there’s nothing that can be done medically. The mix of drugs I’ve been injecting him with to slow it down is beginning to lose its buzz.’ He shrugged and looked vaguely pained. ‘I don’t what else to do for him.’  
  
The Captain’s eyes became piercing blue darts and Owen actually found himself stepping back a little from him. ‘How long?’ Jack quietly demanded.  
  
‘I don’t know. I’m guessing maybe a few more weeks...’  
  
‘Weeks?!’ Jack’s stomach turned upside down at the thought and he had to lean against the wall for support. ‘That’s not... no...’  
  
‘You have to tell him. He needs to know he could be...’ the doctor couldn’t quite continue the sentence.   
  
‘What?’ Jack asked, bitterly. He leaned to the side a bit and watched Ianto fight his obvious discomfort to give their son some attention, anger and pain consuming him at the sight. ‘How can I tell him that?’   
  
Owen turned around to see what he was staring at, and sighed. ‘I know. But don’t you think it’s crueller not to? He needs to know. You know that.’  
  
Jack looked at him for a moment before nodding. Yes, he had known this was coming. He just hadn’t wanted to admit it to himself. ‘Alright. Alright I’ll...’  
  
There was a sudden shriek and they both darted around the corner to see what was happening. Toshiko and Gwen appeared to be dancing around, excitedly.   
  
‘What the bloody hell’s up with you two?’ Owen asked, cynically.  
  
‘We did it!’ Toshiko said, spinning around to them, her face alight with excitement.   
  
‘The alien language on the back of the alien breeder thingy, we figured out where it comes from!’ Gwen continued.  
  
‘Actually, it was Gwen,’ Tosh deferred the praise, graciously. ‘She spotted some passages in the archives as I was flipping through, looking for something else entirely...’  
  
‘I just thought it looked familiar, _you’re_ the one who realised where it came from...’  
  
‘No but I wouldn’t have seen it if you hadn’t have suggested we zoom into that passage.’  
  
‘Ah but...’  
  
‘Girls, girls, enough with the mutual appreciation society crap,’ Owen said, moving between them as if to split them up. ‘Just tell us what it is.’  
  
‘Well... I haven’t translated the text on the back of it yet,’ Toshiko admitted, more quietly. ‘But at least now we know who made it.’  
  
‘Who?’ asked Jack.  
  
‘It was made by a species called the Garacoikan,’ Gwen answered, even though he had directed the question at Tosh.   
  
He shrugged at that as if to confirm that he’d never heard of them.  
  
‘Knowing that means we might possibly be able to find something in the Torchwood archives, or even in the UNIT database, which could help us power it up again and figure out how it works.’ Toshiko grinned and went back to her workstation, straight back on the computer. ‘Okay, now we know which alphabet to pull up, it should be an easy task to translate the writing we found on it...’   
  
Everyone, including a wobbly Ianto, gathered around her as she got to work on it. It took only minutes for her to translate the entire text, and for them to discover that it didn’t say what that had expected at all. It wasn’t a reproductive device...  
  
‘Counselling?’ Owen asked, with a snort. ‘Are you serious?’  
  
Toshiko looked dubious herself. ‘The translation might be a bit off.’  
  
Tosh ran the translation again and stared at the output. ‘Maybe our alphabet is wrong?’ she offered as an explanation as they looked at the translation.   
  
‘I don't know, we've used it before right? And I mean, there wasn't a problem with the translations then was there?’ Gwen picked the device up and looked over it, double checking that they weren't missing any symbols or any other markings.   
  
‘It does make sense.’ The others all turned to Ianto who was leaning heavily against the desk, his hand on his side. ‘Well, think about it. It only activated when Jack and I were touching it and it wasn't as if he and I were the best of friends at that time.’   
  
Jack turned to look at Ianto, that idea rolling around in his mind. Was Arthur merely an output of an alien attempt at counseling?  
  
‘So, like making two people work together to raise a child? Having to get over their problems for the sake of another?’ Tosh sounded as if she was slowly warming up to the idea.   
  
‘Wot, like those plastic baby dolls you see given to horny teenagers on chatshows?’ Owen asked.  
  
Ianto shrugged, ‘It sounds about right doesn't it?’  
  
‘Why, that would make it a relationship counsellor.’ Owen snorted, but his laughter was cut off when he realised that no one else was laughing.   
  
‘It thought our relationship needed repairing...?’ Jack started, looking over to Ianto and then down to Arthur who had dragged Draig onto the ground and was currently having him destroy the inhabitants of Pencil Town.   
  
‘...so it created a child to force us to work through our problems,’ Ianto finished, his legs shaking from the effort of holding him up.   
  
‘I don't know, sounds like an awful lot of work to go through for the sake of a relationship.’ Owen was doubtful, but Gwen and Tosh exchanged looks as Jack hurried over to help Ianto down into a chair, his concern evident.   
  
‘Let me take you home.’  
  
‘I'm fine.’  
  
‘Obviously not, you need to rest some more.’  
  
‘I've been resting for the past two weeks!’  
  
‘It's obviously not been enough. Please?’ Jack kneeled down, a hand on his knee, looking up at him imploringly. ‘Let’s go home.’  
  
The description of his place as a home, _their_ home, softened Ianto’s reserve a great deal, and finally he nodded in defeat.  
  
Gwen turned to Owen. ‘Looks like it worked to me,’ she whispered to him.   
  
Together they watched Jack help Ianto to his feet and gather up their child in his arms. ‘Owen, you’re in charge. Give me a call if anything comes up,’ he called behind him.  
  
‘Sure.’  
  
While Jack concentrated on supporting Ianto’s weight over to the door, Arthur turned around waved his little hand at the rest of the team. ‘Bye bye!’ he yelled, and started chewing on Draig’s ear.  
  
Tosh and Gwen grinned at each other, and then laughed at the simpering expression on Owen’s face. He snapped out of it when he realised what he was doing and glared at them. But they just carried on giggling at him.   
  
*  
  
Ianto watched Jack play with Arthur in silence. He wanted to go over and sit down with them, and maybe join in, but he was just too exhausted. And he didn’t care what Owen said, or more accurately what Owen _hadn’t_ said. He knew there was something very wrong with him.   
  
Maybe it wasn’t coming up on the medical scans. That seemed to be the best explanation. All he knew was, he felt like he was shutting down. Every day it became harder to go on breathing and Ianto was getting scared.  
  
But despite this fear and despite the pain, he knew that one thing was for certain watching Jack and Arthur playing on the floor; he couldn’t tell Jack. Not when he wasn’t sure. Not when life was so strangely perfect otherwise.   
  
‘Hey hey hey!’ Jack muttered and pulled one of the lego men out of Arthur’s mouth. ‘Not for eating, you know that. And what would King Arthur say if he found out big Arthur had eaten Sir Lancelot. Hmm?’   
  
Ianto chuckled to himself.  
  
Jack rolled onto his stomach and put Sir Lancelot on top of the Camelot castle he’d built. Then he put Draig into Arthur hands. ‘Okay, it’s Camelot against this fearsome dragon... will King Arthur save the day?’  
  
The toddler quickly got the game and started hitting the castle with the dragon toy. ‘Bam! Bam! Rwaaaaaaaar!’ he yelled, excitedly and giggled at the exaggerated sounds of anguish Jack made with each soldier knocked over by the giant swoops of the stuffed toy.   
  
Jack let the Lego knights fall to the ground as Draig the fearsome dragon smashed into everything. He finally fell back, pretending to be wounded as Arthur climbed on top of him and had Draig attack him. Jack fought valiantly but in the end Arthur and his pet dragon won out.   
  
‘Come on little one, it's time for your nap.’ Jack finally said, pulling Arthur up into his arms.   
  
‘No sleepy!’ he insisted, yawning despite himself.   
  
‘Yes sleepy!’ Jack countered before grinning and taking him away to his cot.   
  
The kid looked so much like Ianto sometimes, the hair curling around his ears, his nose and those cheekbones. It was like looking at a pint sized version of the man sometimes. ‘And if you take your nap like a good boy, Daddy may order pizza for dinner.’  
  
Arthur bounced in his bed, obviously happy with the idea of eating pizza later. Jack finished tucking him in, pulling his blankets up and around him and placing Draig right next to him. He softly kissed Arthur's forehead before retreating back into the den.   
  
Ianto was laid out on the couch, same as he had been earlier, but the look on his face was one that immediately caught Jack's attention. ‘What's wrong Yan?’ Jack murmured as he slipped down and sat by Ianto's feet.   
  
‘You're really good at playing with him.’  
  
‘Oh, now don't tell me you're getting upset over the knights. I promise no soldiers were harmed in the making of this Lego destruction.’ Jack grinned but Ianto just shook his head sadly.   
  
‘That's not... it's...’ Ianto couldn't say what he was feeling, there were no words and even if there were was, he couldn't rightly say he would be able to say it.  
  
Gently, Ianto pulled Jack up closer to him and pressed his lips against Jack's. Immediately, he responded, laying Ianto back down and crawling over him whilst never parting lips. He settled down between Ianto’s legs, putting them chest to chest, and then really let himself go kissing Ianto the way he had wanted to for so long.   
  
All too soon they had to break apart for breath, more for Ianto than him.  
  
‘What’s brought this on?’ Jack asked and pressed some light kisses onto his neck.  
  
‘I like seeing this side to you,’ he replied, and then added sadly, ‘and I’d hate for this... _us_ to be a missed opportunity...’  
  
‘Never happen,’ Jack assured him and kissed him deeply again. Yes, he had been on the verge of giving up hope for a minute there, but now that Toshiko had a lead on the alien device he was completely certain again that they would figure out a cure. There was no way he was losing him now. Jack rocked into him as they kissed, enjoying the feel of Ianto’s hands clinging onto his back, enjoying the tingles it produced down his spine.  
  
When again they broke apart, he gave Ianto a positively scandalous grin before crawling backwards a little way and unbuttoning his trousers.  
  
‘What are you doing?’ Ianto gasped, eyes wide open.  
  
‘I would have thought that was pretty obvious...’  
  
‘Jack...’  
  
‘Shhhh, just relax,’ he said, ‘let me make you feel good. I want to do this for you.’  
  
Ianto gulped loudly and lay back. ‘You try relaxing when your fantasies start to come true,’ he muttered, more to himself than to Jack.   
  
‘Fantasies eh?’ Jack grinned and pulled Ianto's pants down, gently taking him in hand.   
  
‘I'd say more but I'm afraid of what may happen to your ego if I do so.’ Ianto's eyes were closed and it looked as if he was trying to brace himself for what was to come.   
  
‘Why don't you let me worry about that.’ Jack breathed hotly on the tip of Ianto's cock, grinning as it jerked and began to harden in his hand. ‘There we go.’ Looking up into Ianto's face, Jack slowly slid his mouth onto him, sucking softly at the head of his cock.   
  
‘Oh, oh god...’ Ianto breathed, his hips moving ever so slightly up and down, pushing his prick just a bit further, a bit deeper into Jack's mouth.   
  
Jack smirked and began to hum slightly as he let his mouth slide down further until he had taken Ianto in to the root.   
  
‘Oh shit Jack...’ Ianto groaned, his hands flying to Jack's hair, grasping at the strands as he tried to dictate the speed.   
  
‘Careful, the little one is asleep and if he wakes up we won't be doing this...’ Jack teased, his tongue curling around the base before licking all the way back up to the tip.   
  
‘Just, please,’ Ianto groaned, and Jack relented, swallowing around him again as Ianto's hips began moving, pressing him deeper and deeper until Jack could feel Ianto in the back of his throat.  
  
He hummed as he pulled backwards and forwards, delicately wrapping his tongue around the sensitive head and tracing his tongue up the length of the thick, pulsing vein underneath alternately. Jack smiled as Ianto started to buck, his breathing growing shallow and his stomach muscles twitching with the need to thrust. Jack could taste the salty precum leaking from him and he relished the taste. It made his own cock throb with need. But as much as he longed for release, this wasn’t for him. This was for Ianto and so that was where his concentration remained.  
  
‘Can’t... can’t hold on...’ Ianto gasped, frantically.   
  
Jack calmly held his hips down, indicating with his eyes that it wasn’t a problem. He slowed a little, prolonging the moment more for himself than for Ianto, allowing his eyes to slide close in order to memorise the feel, the taste and the scent of the man he was worshiping with his tongue.   
  
A series of gasps and twitches alerted him to the fact that Ianto had lost the battle with his willpower and Jack welcomed the hot spurt into the back of throat, drinking it all down greedily, wringing every drop out of him. Then he gently tucked Ianto back into his trousers and lay down half on top of him, half on the rest of the couch, entangling their bodies comfortably together.  
  
‘Thank you,’ Ianto whispered and snuggled into him.   
  
It made Jack chuckle and he kissed him on the temple. That was so Ianto to be so polite. ‘I’ve wanted to do that for a long time,’ he admitted.  
  
‘S-sorry I can’t...’ he glanced down at the bulge in Jack’s trousers, guiltily.  
  
‘Don’t be. That’s not what I want from you.’  
  
Ianto frowned, not understanding.  
  
‘I want you to stay here and go to sleep in my arms for a while. Think you can do that for me?’  
  
‘I’ll give it a try,’ he said, smiling, eyes already sliding closed. Ianto was exhausted. And he couldn’t think of a better way to fall asleep than wrapped in strong arms, surrounded by warmth and care.   
  
Jack watched him drift off and kissed him on the forehead. Ianto stirred a little but only to snuggle into him all the more.  
  
No, there was no way he was going to lose Ianto. Not now.


	8. Chapter 8

Tosh entered in a second string of numbers and still the computer flashed red. ‘No, those don't work Owen, try something else!’  
  
‘I don't have anything else, that’s the last set of numbers we have!’ Owen fumed and came out from the medical bay, letting the large tome drop onto the desk.  
  
‘We've been researching this bloody thing non-stop for the past few days and we have nothing on it.’ He grumbled and flung himself in his chair. ‘And what's more, I haven't had a shower in three days, I've slept bugger all since then and I haven't had a decent cup of coffee since Ianto began staying home.’  
  
‘Oh would you just shut up? Neither have we you know.’ Gwen plopped down in her own chair, idly shifting the loose pages on her desk. ‘Nothing new in the archives. Again.’  
  
‘He said to keep trying...’ Tosh began, spinning in her chair to face the other two.  
  
‘But what if there's nothing else? What if there is no cure Tosh? We found the language and decoded it but we have nothing else. That's it we've failed, there is nothing else we can do for Ianto,’ Gwen burst out, falling back in her chair and rubbing at the headache that was beginning to brew there from hunching over such tiny print for so long.  
  
‘Maybe so,’ Tosh agreed and they all winced as they heard the circular door begin to open. ‘But who wants to admit that to _him_?’  
  
Jack stopped momentarily, sensing that they had been talking about him from the lack of chat going on. The team looked like crap, if he was honest, and he knew it was harsh to keep pushing them. But there was no other way. Ianto was running out of time. ‘Find anything?’  
  
Gwen shrugged and looked to the side, biting her lip. Toshiko looked flustered. Owen just glared and then rolled his eyes.  
  
‘Well?’ he demanded, not liking the implied subordination of there silence.  
  
‘We found nothing. Just like we found nothing yesterday. And, coincidentally, the day before that,’ Owen growled.  
  
Jack threw the glare back and turned to Tosh. ‘Any word from UNIT on finding a potential power source compatible with that device?’  
  
She lowered her eyes and looked regretful. ‘Yes and they don’t have anything that could help us. I’m sorry.’  
  
Their boss stood between them, looking at each, seeing the weary defeat etched into their features. ‘Okay, so what now?’  
  
More silence. Jack could see this was getting serious.  
  
‘Don’t tell me you’ve given up?’  
  
‘How much more can we do?’ Gwen asked, not quite meeting his eyes. ‘We’ve searched everything we can think of. Jack, I know you don’t want to hear this but...’  
  
‘You’re right, I don’t,’ he snapped. ‘You are not giving up, do you hear me? This is Ianto’s life on the line, here. You know he would do the same for any one of you...’  
  
‘Do we?’ Owen muttered to himself, almost without realising it.  
  
‘Excuse me?’  
  
Jack’s icy stare fell upon him and Owen shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He decided he wasn’t going to take the abuse lying down. He was tired, grimy and on the wrong side of pissed off, and he didn’t need this shit. ‘Oh come off it. Mr Cyberconversion? Like he’d be doing half as much if it was one of us...’  
  
It was as if all the air in the room had been sucked out. Jack gave him a thunderous glare before running up the steps to his office and slamming the door behind him.  
  
They all winced at the sound, and Owen found himself the object of some disapproving looks. ‘What? Was just telling the truth,’ he said, defiantly.  
  
Gwen sighed wearily and Tosh got back to work.  
  
*  
  
Jack picked up a toy car that Arthur had left on his desk and began to run the thing slowly across his desk before he heard a faint alarm going off in the distance.  
  
‘Jack!’ Gwen yelled, but he was already grabbing his gun and moving to the stairs. ‘Weevil alarm...’ she said, following as he just grunted and grabbed the keys to the SUV and headed off.  
  
Tosh and Owen were waiting at the car, Tosh with a small digital read out of where the alarm had been set off and Owen digging through his med kit. ‘Alright, come on.’  
  
It was always odd, going out in the field without Ianto in the seat next to him, or even having him at the Hub on back up comm. Jack visibly shook himself as Tosh began reading out the directions for him. ‘Okay, next left and then a right...’  
  
Jack quickly pulled the SUV into a parking spot, jumping out and having his gun out and ready as Owen and Gwen got out behind him. Tosh hit a few more keys as she continued to direct them from the SUV.  
  
‘Jack! Down here!’ Gwen took off, having seen something out of the corner of her eye, following it down a long dark alley.  
  
‘Gwen!’ Jack yelled back, pulling Owen as they turned to rush after her and provide back up.  
  
They ran through the alleys and came to some steps at the side of an old building, leading to a door hanging off its hinges. Gwen was inside, shining her torch at a large hole in the floor. She was gasping for air as well as trying to cover her nose against the smell coming from below.  
  
‘Oh great,’ Owen said and gagged. ‘Smells like a sodding sewer.’  
  
‘That would be because it is,’ Jack said, peering over the side, apparently oblivious to the smell. He shrugged. ‘Okay if it’s back in the sewers I guess we leave it.’  
  
He turned to leave but Toshiko put her hand on his arm. ‘We can’t just let it go, it attacked someone!’  
  
‘What? And you didn’t tell me on the way because...?’  
  
She opened her mouth as if to snap back but quickly lost the nerve. ‘It put two people from the park in the hospital.’  
  
‘Why?’ he asked, glaring.  
  
‘It appears to have been unprovoked, from what I could tell.’  
  
‘So the Weevil’s gone nuts. Whoopdy doo,’ Owen added, not very helpfully.  
  
Jack stared into her eyes for a moment before sighing. ‘Fine. Let’s get it.’ He climbed down and helped the others to follow him one by one. ‘Which way?’ he asked.  
  
‘That way,’ Toshiko replied, pointing and staring at her tracking device. She sounded a little choked by the smell.  
  
Jack ran down the sewer, ignoring the smell (there had been worse) and the sound of his shoes against the bit of water in the pipes. ‘Left!’ Tosh choked out again, coughing into her sleeve as Jack rounded the next bit of pipe and came up on a large weevil, snarling and holding a shredded bag in its hand.  
  
‘What's it got?’ Gwen yelled, pointing her gun at the weevil and trying to stop the smell.  
  
‘It looks like a carrier bag...’ Owen muttered, edging around them to get a better look at it.  
  
Owen began edging close to a small outlet where there was a scuffling noise and then the weevil lunged out at Owen. Jack shot it. He didn't even think about it.  
  
Slowly it staggered, blinking over at Jack before finally slumping down to the ground by Owen's feet. Letting out a deep breath, Owen moved over to pick up the carrier bag and begin to dig through it. There were packaged meats and fruits and vegetables inside.  
  
‘What the...?’ Owen began before he was startled, jerking away from the dead weevil. Out of the side tunnel by Owen came a small creature, a pint sized weevil that dropped to its knees and began shaking the elder weevil. It started wailing, at first almost inaudibly, and then a little louder. Big brown eyes stared up at them and seemed to be full of tears. Then it snuggled its little face into the dead weevil’s arm and continued weeping.  
  
Just as Jack’s gun was beginning to lower in his hands, Gwen suddenly startled him, crying ‘Jack!’ She was pointing her gun at another, slightly larger Weevil, which was coming out of the darkness towards them.  
  
He immediately aimed again, waiting for it to lunge, certain it was snarling and bearing its teeth. But once it came into the light of Toshiko’s torch, he saw it wasn’t at all. It was moaning to itself. Their eyes locked and Jack saw something in them which shocked him and made him take a step back.  
  
It slowly sat down beside the baby weevil and pulled it into its arms. The two of them cried together.  
  
Jack’s gun slid from his hands and hit the ground with an echoing clatter. He backed away, eyes wide, body shaking, until he hit the wall. Then, he was gone; running off into the tunnels.  
  
‘Jack!’ Toshiko called after him. ‘Jack stop!’ She turned to Owen, frantically. ‘Shouldn’t we go after him?’  
  
‘Leave him. What about these ones?’ he asked, still pointing his gun at the Weevils. ‘Tranq ‘em or leave ‘em?’  
  
Gwen put her hand on his arm and had him lower his gun. ‘I think we should leave them,’ she said quietly.  
  
He put Jack’s gun in his pocket and nodded, leading them back out the way they came.  
  
*  
  
Jack didn't say anything on the way back to the Hub, his eyes remaining on the road and firmly ignoring all of Gwen's attempts at drawing him into any sort of conversation.  
  
‘Update our lexicon,’ he said finally, once they were all inside, voice devoid of anything, ‘Weevils do have family groups it seems.’  
  
‘Jack you didn't...’  
  
‘Gwen!’ Jack near bit her head off and she stopped. ‘Just do it! Why do I always have to fucking tell you twice?!’  
  
Studiously ignoring the hurt expression on her face, Jack ran up the steps and went into his office. The moment the door closed, he turned around and leaned against it. His legs seemed to turn to water and he slid down to the floor. Jack ran his fingers through his hair, trying not to see that baby Weevil and the sheer look of grief in the other parent’s eyes, trying not to hear the animal sounds of their crying together.  
  
Jack shook his head, trying not to see it, but he couldn’t get rid of them. Even banging his head back against the door wouldn’t do it. His hands were shaking and he knew he was now crying yet he just couldn’t control it.  
  
 _It was me_ , he thought, hysterically, sharp stabbing pains of grief attacking him in the chest. _It was me. It was me._  
  
The look in that Weevil’s eyes – he knew exactly what it was. And he knew he would look exactly the same when...  
  
‘No no no no,’ he muttered to himself and tried to stop the tears.  
  
It wasn’t going to happen. Ianto wasn’t going to die. Arthur wasn’t going to crawl over to him and hold him and cry... It wasn’t them. _Of course it wasn’t._  
  
They would find a way. They would find a way.  
  
Suddenly, he couldn’t breathe. Jack leapt to his feet and fought to be free of his greatcoat. Then he tried to draw breath. It wasn’t working, he was suffocating. He couldn’t bear it. Jack wiped his hand roughly over his face and stormed out of the office, not sure where he was going, only knowing he had to get out of there.  
  
The next thing he knew he was down in the cells, staring at their longest residing Weevil (which he’d jokingly nicknamed Janet to himself, after an ex of many eons ago). Jack pressed his palms against the glass and then his forehead and continued to stare, and stare...  
  
*  
  
Ianto heard the doorbell ring and winced. He had been half falling asleep. It took a great deal of effort to roll a sleepy Arthur off his lap and onto the couch and then to get up to go answer it.  
  
Eventually he reached the door. Ianto was very surprised to see that it was Owen. ‘Um... shouldn’t you be at work?’  
  
‘I was,’ Owen pushed past him and went into the living room. He smiled as he saw Arthur sitting on the couch, rubbing his eyes and yawning. ‘Hey there Arty, how you doing?’  
  
‘What’s happened?’ Ianto asked, concern etched into his features. ‘Is it Jack? Is everything okay?’  
  
‘Uh well... I would have called you, but I thought it would be better this way. Ya know – face to face.’  
  
That really seemed to disturb Ianto. ‘Face to face? What is this about?’  
  
Owen picked Arthur up, holding him close as he made his way into the den. There were little Lego villages, some half-destroyed some not, littered through out the room. A kids DVD box lay out on the table and Owen recognised the large child-sized dragon lying in the middle of the floor.  
  
They really had taken to playing house.  
  
Even Jack had begun leaving small things around. Owen recognized a pair of braces across the back of a chair, as well as the shoes under it. The house practically screamed domesticity and it wasn't a thing he had ever imagined to come across when dealing with Captain Harkness.  
  
‘Hey Arthur, why don't you go and find your absolute favourite movie and Uncle Owen will put it on for you,’ Owen said, distracting the young boy as he turned back to Ianto.  
  
‘Jack, Jack is pretty cracked,’ he started, stopping when he saw Arthur at his leg already. He held up the movie Sword in the Stone and bounced on his feet. ‘Alright, let’s go put it on.’ Owen put the movie on, adjusted the volume levels before he sat back down with Ianto.  
  
‘Look, Ianto, I haven't been entirely honest with you about this disease.’ Owen began, turning to look at him better. ‘Right now we're not sure what even caused it, but it's pretty much guaranteed that it was the same device that caused him.’ Owen nodded over to the boy who was laughing at Merlin. ‘But, fuck Ianto I'm sorry, right now it's shutting down your organs. Liver, kidney... heart,’ Owen said softly, ‘and right now we have no cure.’  
  
Ianto went to the window and was silent for a little while, staring out, his back turned to them both. Owen could see him in his reflection, subtly frowning. Finally, after some time seemed to have gone by, he turned back around to Owen. ‘I know,’ he said, quietly. ‘I mean, I guessed; I wasn’t sure.’ He sighed and looked over to Arthur. ‘I know it was that device too. But I... I’m glad. I mean, obviously I don’t want to die, especially not now, but... look at him, Owen. Look at him.’  
  
The Doctor did as requested and then looked back to Ianto, not quite sure what to make of the small smile playing about his lips and the genuinely soppy expression softening his eyes.  
  
‘I can’t imagine him never being with us. And I certainly wouldn’t ever wish him gone. So although I don’t want to go, I really don’t... I do take comfort in knowing that at least he’ll live. Somehow at least a part of me will continue living...’ He turned to Owen and blushed, self consciously. ‘Is any of this making sense?’  
  
Owen nodded and shrugged in an awkward manner.  
  
‘So uh... how much longer do I have?’  
  
‘I don’t know. Honestly, I’m estimating a few weeks or... or a week. S-sorry.’  
  
‘It’s okay. The way I’m feeling right now, I was rather hoping it would hurry up and do me in so I can have a good rest.’ Ianto managed a dry chuckle, but his face fell soon after it. ‘Jack... how much does he know?’  
  
‘Ah, well, he knows what he’s been choosing to hear. He’s been blanking me mostly. Doesn’t want to believe it.’  
  
Ianto nodded, eyes lowered. ‘Don’t tell him any more then. I think it’ll be better that way.’ A moment’s indecision crossed past his eyes and then Ianto left the room for a moment. He came back, limping his way across the room slowly as he always did now, and presented Owen with a sealed envelope.  
  
‘What’s this?’  
  
‘My last will and testament.’  
  
The surprise Owen felt must have shown in his face, judging by Ianto’s bemused reaction.  
  
‘Like I said, I had an... inkling.’ He shrugged. ‘Would you mind taking care of it until... until this is all overwith?’  
  
‘Sure,’ Owen replied, and swallowed hard, tucking it away inside his jacket.  
  
Owen sighed, Arthur's giggle at complete odds with their conversation. ‘Ianto, I...’ Owen tried to think of something he could say to Ianto but there were no words. ‘You're a lot stronger than I would be,’ he finally said, quietly, moving over by the window to look at Ianto.  
  
‘Well, we always knew that.’  
  
Owen snorted, in some ways rather glad that Ianto was still joking around with him or at least trying.  
  
‘I'm sure Gwen and Tosh will be coming around at some point, wanting to ahh...’ His words cut off, not quite able to admit that they would be coming by to say goodbye to Ianto, but he just nodded, already knowing what Owen was trying to say.  
  
‘I know.’ Owen sighed and grasped Ianto tightly, hugging him closely for a moment, before dropping his arms and heading out and back towards the hub.  
  
*  
  
Jack sighed, the readouts of the alien device in front of him, the numbers swimming around in front of his eyes from exhaustion.  
  
A soft knock came at the door and Jack just grunted, watching as the door creaked open and Gwen stepped in. ‘We've updated our information systems.’  
  
‘Good.’ He nodded but Gwen didn't leave, just moved closer to him.  
  
‘Perhaps...’  
  
‘What?’  
  
‘It's almost 4 in the morning,’ she said softly, moving around behind his desk and gently touching his arm. Jack had to shack down the urge he had to push her off; this was Ianto's job, checking on him and making sure he got enough sleep. ‘Why don't you go on home? See Ianto?’  
  
Jack was about to say something rather scathing and biting, aimed at asking Gwen exactly what she was still doing here at 4am when he was sure that Rhys was at home alone. But somewhere between his mind and his mouth it died. He nodded and grabbed his coat, sulking out of the Hub to begin the journey home to the flat.  
  
It seemed to take less time than usual getting back, possibility because he had been driving on autopilot. He had been in a daze all the way, the echoing cries of that weevil family he’d unwittingly destroyed refusing to leave his ears. Jack stood outside the flat for a while, taking in the night air, trying to steel his nerves, terrified that Ianto would take one look at his eyes and know he was beginning to give up.  
  
Eventually he found the strength to go inside. The place was silent and dark. Jack stalked through like a shadow, up the creaky stairs and came to the bedroom. Ianto was asleep, so he remained in the doorway, watching him.  
  
‘Mm...’ Ianto groaned and rolled over, opening his eyes a little. ‘Jack?’  
  
‘I’m here,’ he replied, quietly.  
  
‘Where’ve you been? I was worried.’  
  
‘Sorry.’  
  
Ianto sat himself up, wearily. ‘What are you doing?’  
  
‘Nothing.’  
  
‘Come to bed,’ he groaned and lay back down.  
  
Jack took a deep breath before stepping inside a little further. Slowly, almost robotically, he threw his greatcoat and gun holster on the chair in the corner and then removed his boots, taking time to unpick the laces one by one. It took so long that Ianto sat up and watched him again.  
  
Once Jack had got into bed, and rolled up behind Ianto to spoon him, Ianto finally asked the question that was on his mind. ‘What’s wrong? Owen said you were acting weird.’  
  
‘Nothing.’  
  
‘Are you sure?’  
  
‘Yes.’ He pressed a small kiss to the back of Ianto’s neck and relaxed down behind him as if going to sleep.  
  
Ianto decided to let it drop. There was no use in pushing it when Jack was in this type of mood, that much he knew.  
  
‘It’s just...’ Jack said, and realised he’d startled Ianto a bit since he had been falling back to sleep. ‘It’s just, I spent so much time worrying about what it would be like for me to leave you, I didn’t consider how it would be for you to leave me. I don’t... I can’t...’  
  
That made Ianto sigh. Obviously Jack knew his days were numbered, and maybe he was beginning to accept it. But that was a good thing. Because the last thing he wanted was for Jack to be upset. ‘Don’t,’ he said, quickly. ‘I know. And I’m sorry. Now let’s sleep.’  
  
Jack nodded and snuggled in, holding on tightly. Ianto felt wetness on the back of his neck. He got the feeling that Jack wouldn’t be sleeping anytime soon, but he was content to just be held. After all, he doubted they would have many more opportunities to do this.


	9. Chapter 9

Ianto awoke, his muscles tense and crying out and his stomach and throat aching. He found himself wishing that he would be gone before the majority of his organs failed and the pain increased. It took him half an hour before Ianto felt that he would be capable of moving; thirty minutes of laying in the bed and trying to breathe slowly, trying to relax, before he was finally able to get up and hobble into the den.   
  
Arthur was sat on the floor, Draig by his side and a sugary bowl of cereal in front of him, watching his morning cartoons. Jack was sat on the couch, his face vacant and his eyes haunted, not even seeing his son on the floor. Ianto's heart hurt in a way that he knew had nothing to do with this illness. He fervently hoped that this wouldn't become the usual scene when he was gone and that Jack would have more life to him than this.   
  
‘Jack,’ he croaked out, his throat having gone scratchy and his voice coming out a bit weak.  
  
Jack's eyes snapped up, moving from whatever ghost images he had been watching to finally settle on him. Ianto didn't know whether to be relieved or hurt at how his eyes seemed to light up a bit more when they finally saw him.   
  
‘Hey, I was beginning to get worried. Thought I would go in and check on you.’ His voice was light as Jack opened his arms and Ianto crawled into them, but it was the sort of lightness that was forced when nothing else would come.   
  
‘No, I'm alright.’ And it was another lie and they both knew it, but Ianto wasn't quite able to say he felt like a bit of him was really and truly dying now and part of him just wished it to be over. Not here and not now.   
  
Ianto slowly ran a hand through Jack's hair and kissed his temple as they sat there, watching Arthur.  
  
‘How bad is the pain?’ Jack asked, quietly, into his hair. When no answer came he had to push the subject. ‘Ianto?’  
  
‘Owen’s drugs aren’t doing anything anymore,’ Ianto admitted. ‘Feels like...’ he trailed off.  
  
‘What? Like what?’   
  
‘Like I don’t have long,’ he whispered, and his body started to shake as tears broke out. Jack grabbed him and held onto him, absorbing the weight of his cries.  
  
Arthur stared at them with wide eyes, before getting his feet and coming closer. He took hold of Ianto’s leg, pulling at the trouser fabric until Jack lifted him up and into his dad’s arms. Ianto held him to his chest, crying, and Jack put his arms around both of them.   
  
Once the tears had subsided and Ianto had gotten back in control, he let Arthur back a little. The little boy searched in his pockets and came out with half a biscuit he’d obviously hidden away at some point, as if hoping it would help him feel better.   
  
Ianto laughed and wiped his face before accepting it. ‘Thank you Arthur.’  
  
‘Welcome Daddy.’  
  
‘So polite,’ Jack commented and ruffled his hand through Arthur’s curly mop of hair. ‘Can’t think where he gets that from.’  
  
Although Ianto chuckled at that, it was a weak and painful one. ‘Look after him, Jack,’ he sighed.   
  
‘You know I will.’ Jack drew him closer in his arms in reassurance. ‘Oh! I almost forgot.’ He stood up and went over to the bureau, opening a drawer. ‘I have a gift for you. Well, actually it’s for me too really.’ Jack took out a picture in a frame and came and sat down.   
  
The sight on offer made Ianto smile. ‘That was a good day,’ he said, remembering taking Arthur on that ride at the funfair. The two of them looked really happy; Arthur was grinning.  
  
Arthur pointed at the picture and looked around at him. ‘Who’s that, Arthur?’ Ianto asked.  
  
‘Daddy!’ came the yelled reply.  
  
‘Uh huh. And who’s that?’ he pointed at Arthur in the picture.  
  
The child looked at it for a moment, and then yelled, ‘Draig!’, apparently seeing the dragon toy in his photo self’s arms before himself.  
  
Jack couldn’t help but laugh.   
  
‘Near enough,’ Ianto said and rolled his eyes. He turned to Jack. ‘Thank you.’  
  
‘You’re welcome.’ He closed the distance between them and kissed him, treasuring the perfect little moment.   
  
Jack ran his fingers on the outside of the picture frame before turning to Ianto and noticing how tired he looked already. ‘Why don't you take a lie down? Arthur, want to pick out a movie for daddy while I make him something to eat?’  
  
Arthur bounced down and over to the TV and picked up The Sword in the Stone again. ‘Arthur film!’   
  
Jack laughed, but put it on, smiling as Arthur ran and made himself cosy in Ianto's lap.  
  
He moved off to the kitchen, leaning against the counter and taking slow controlled breaths, trying to regain his composure as he went about making something small for Ianto to eat.   
  
Soup seemed the obvious choice. ‘Hey, brought you something hot.’ Jack offered the soup, picking Arthur up off of Ianto's lap so he could eat.   
  
Arthur kept bouncing, mouth running a mile a minute, babbling on and on as the television kept playing. Ianto blinked and Jack could see the fatigue hitting Ianto's face again. ‘Arthur, why don't I take you down to the park?’  
  
‘Park!!’ Arthur wiggled until he was put onto the ground, running over and grabbing Draig and bouncing up and down.  
  
‘Try and get some rest Yan...’ Jack murmured, ‘I'll be back soon, hopefully with a much less energetic son.’  
  
Ianto snorted as Jack put Arthur's shoes on and began heading out the door.  
  
‘Be good!’ he yelled, though his sore throat made it barely audible.   
  
He tried to get up a few moments after the door was slammed but found he just couldn’t do it. So Ianto lay down and put the television on some mindless talk show, knowing it wouldn’t require much thought to watch it. It wasn’t long before he was drifting in and out of sleep.  
  
*  
  
‘Hi Jack!’  
  
Jack jumped, startled, and put his hand on his chest. ‘Gwen!’  
  
‘Sorry.’  
  
He lifted Arthur up to the top of the climbing frame again and watched him crawl through the tunnel to the slide. When the boy reached the bottom, he was caught in Owen’s hands.   
  
‘Come ‘ere you,’ Owen said, and lifted him up in the air. ‘How’s my favourite nephew today then, eh?’  
  
‘Slide! Slide!’   
  
Owen chuckled and took over Jack’s role of helping him up to slide down again and again.   
  
Meanwhile, Jack was looking between his team, frowning. ‘What are you all doing here?’  
  
‘We wanted to ask,’ Tosh said, blushing a little, ‘well, we wanted to know how Ianto’s doing?’  
  
Jack paused, Owen bouncing Arthur in his arms as he tried to think about how exactly to explain that his entire body was going into decline and that everything was slowly turning off, preparing to just _stop_? How to explain that he could feel it and that Jack could see it in his face, see that pain and that sense of complete weariness?   
  
‘He's,’ Jack paused again, ‘he's been better. Tired all the time. Wakes up and comes into the den, and has to rest just from that small bit of exertion.’ Jack shook his head, rubbing at his temples and cursing softly. ‘Doing as good as someone who is slowly dying I guess.’ Jack took Arthur from Owens arms and clinging to him tightly.  
  
Arthur squirmed, wanting to be let down and it wasn't until Jack set him down that he was happy.   
  
‘Well, how is he with... everything?’ Gwen asked, trying to frame her question delicately.   
  
‘Like anyone dying feels Gwen! He's fucking upset about it.’ Jack was feeling exasperated, as if he was being stretched to his limit here emotionally. Emotional wasn't something he did. Dramatics yes, that was something he had a particular flair for even. But he didn't do emotional. ‘Sorry. I don't know what to say, what to do. We're just ... it's like we're both just waiting for it to finally happen, just clinging on until we can't anymore.’ He sighed picking Draig up from where Arthur had let him fall on the ground. ‘I think part of him is almost looking forward to it.’  
  
‘Oh Jack!’ Gwen glared at him and Jack just shrugged.   
  
‘He's tired. This thing, whatever it is, it's just draining him.’  
  
‘Poor Ianto,’ Tosh murmured, quietly. ‘I’m so sorry.’  
  
‘You have nothing to be sorry about.’   
  
‘If I could have found a way to make that machine work... maybe...’  
  
Jack shook his head. ‘Don’t. There’s no point.’  
  
Together they wandered over to the park bench nearby. With a wry smile, Jack remembered the day he’d sat and watched Ianto show Arthur off to a bunch of fawning women – and how mad he’d felt. In retrospect he couldn’t quite believe he’d ever been willing to ignore the child that was so obviously a part of him.   
  
‘You know,’ he began, after a long silence, and was bemused to see the three of them all turn to him at once and look so attentive to him, ‘if there’s an emergency somewhere in Cardiff we’re screwed.’  
  
That relieved the tension a little as the team chuckled together.   
  
‘I have the sensors on so if any of the alarms were to go,’ Tosh trailed off and pulled out her PDA, double checking that so far everything was fine.  
  
‘Never doubted that you had done something Tosh.’ Jack grinned, his eyes falling from Tosh's face to see Arthur in the sand pit, building castles. ‘The boy has some fascination with castles.’  
  
‘And dragons.’ Owen added, picking up Draig and taking it over to Arthur.   
  
‘Well, at least you know he was named correctly then,’ Gwen offered, sliding down onto the bench beside Jack. He just grunted and continued to watch his son destroy the sand castle with the dragon, complete with Godzilla-like noises and stomping.   
  
‘I hope...’ Jack trailed off; he wasn't going to start acting like that.   
  
‘What?’ Gwen prodded, a hand on his arm.  
  
‘No, it was nothing.’ Jack got up, coat swirling around his legs as he went over to Arthur. ‘Come on kid, it's time we went home. It's time for your nap.’  
  
‘No nap!’ Arthur pouted and plopped himself back down into the sand.  
  
‘Oh, come on Arthur, don't be like that,’ Jack chided, tickling the boy until he giggled and grinned. ‘If you’re good, maybe you can take your nap with Daddy.’ Jack offered, feeling pretty sure that Ianto would still be feeling tired.   
  
‘Wif Daddy?’ Arthur bounced a bit as Jack picked him and the plush dragon up into his arms.   
  
‘Yep. Promise.’ Arthur giggled and kissed his dad's cheek as Jack turned to the remainder of his team. ‘You can drop by, if you want...’  
  
The three of them looked between one another, awkwardly. ‘We’d like that,’ Toshiko accepted, for all of them.   
  
Jack could immediately tell they had discussed just that before coming. Their expressions seemed to indicate that they wanted to say goodbye and pay their last respects. He wished he had cause to wipe the sympathetic looks from their faces but Jack knew too well he didn’t. Ianto didn’t have long and they all knew it.   
  
‘Alright. Try not to, I don’t know, excite him. And uh... don’t be upset if he falls asleep mid-sentence.’ Jack shrugged. ‘It happens.’  
  
They nodded and followed behind as Jack led them along, out of the park and down the three or four streets they had to go down to get back to Ianto’s flat. Once there, he had them wait in the hallway for a moment while he went and gave him some warning. Jack helped Ianto wake up and sat him up on the couch, Arthur sitting on his lap, before letting the rest of his team come in. Then he retreated back to let them say whatever they needed to.  
  
Toshiko moved forwards first. ‘Hi,’ she said, and crouched down.  
  
‘Hi,’ he croaked, trying to smile. ‘It’s nice to see you.’ Ianto took hold of her hand, warmly. ‘I’m glad you came. There’s... so much I want to say to you.’ He coughed, weakly.  
  
‘Ianto...’ she began, clearly about to apologise for not saving him.  
  
‘Toshiko, I wanted to say thank you for everything you did to help Arthur. And me. You’ve no idea how grateful I am. I don’t know what I would have done otherwise.’  
  
She burst out in tears and he drew her into a hug.   
  
‘It’s okay,’ he murmured into her hair before setting her free to draw back and wipe her eyes, embarrassed.  
  
Next he looked to Gwen. She stepped forwards, a sympathetic smile on her face.   
  
‘Gwen, I’m sorry I nearly got you killed. You know, when Lisa put you in the conversion unit. I... I really am sorry for that.’  
  
‘It’s alright,’ she said, and shrugged. ‘Forgotten.’  
  
‘And for your help with Arthur too. I appreciated it. I wish...’ he sighed, ‘I wish I had time to get to know you better.’  
  
She nodded, solemnly, before patting Tosh on the shoulder to comfort her.  
  
Finally Ianto looked to Owen. ‘I still think you’re a twat,’ he said.  
  
‘I think you’re a twat too,’ Owen said, with mock irritation before taking on a note of seriousness. ‘Sorry I couldn’t do more for you mate.’  
  
‘I know.’ Suddenly he was overcome by a wave of cramps, and doubled over, trying not to scream.   
  
Jack immediately hurried over and ushered the others back out into the hallway, quickly letting them out. They didn’t protest.   
  
*  
  
Jack slowly made his way back to the den where Ianto had tried to stand up. ‘Woah, woah, woah! Where are you going?’ Jack asked, moving over to Ianto's side as the other man attempted standing on shaky legs.  
  
‘I wanted to go over and see Arthur,’ Ianto murmured softly, his entire body shaking from exhaustion now. ‘I only wanted to cross the god damned room to see my son.’ Ianto looked at Jack with heavy eyes, suddenly feeling the weight of his sickness squarely on his shoulders. ‘Maybe I should just go and lay down.’   
  
Jack nodded, helping Ianto into their bedroom, his arm slipped around Ianto's waist as he helped support him. ‘You sure, you want to lay down..?.’  
  
‘I feel exhausted Jack. I always feel exhausted, it's the only thing I can feel anymore.’   
  
Ianto leaned back and Jack lifted him up into his arms. Slowly he carried him up the stairs to their bed, putting him down and pulling the crisp sheets over him.   
  
‘Should I go and get Arthur? Or perhaps...’ Jack fidgeted, not sure of what would be better for him to do.  
  
Ianto reached out and grabbed his hand and pulled him closer. ‘Just, lay with me a bit. Keep me from sleeping.’  
  
‘I thought you were tired though,’ Jack toed off his shoes and crawled in behind Ianto, wrapping arms around him.  
  
‘Yeah but, I don't want to sleep yet.’ His breathing was growing shallow, his eyelids fluttering. They lay there for a few minutes before Ianto suddenly juddered and gasped in. ‘Jack,’ he said, with some urgency, ‘please... get Arthur. I need to see Arthur. Get Arthur.’  
  
Something in his voice made Jack shudder inside. ‘Ianto...’  
  
‘Please,’ he gasped, painfully. ‘Please...’  
  
Jack got back out of the bed and hurried downstairs. His heart was pounding. He knew, just knew, exactly what Ianto’s tone of voice meant. Maybe their time had finally run out.  
  
He scooped up Arthur and Draig and carried them upstairs.   
  
Ianto had his eyes pressed tightly closed, his whole body tense with obvious pain.   
  
‘Here,’ he muttered, sitting Arthur on the bed.   
  
‘Arthur,’ Ianto gasped and pulled him gently into his arms, fighting his pain to hold his son at least once more. ‘I love you so much. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.’ He paused as his body spasmed and left him even more breathless.   
  
The toddler batted away his tears with his hand. As Ianto turned to Jack, who was kneeling beside the bed, looking over him fearfully, Arthur crawled back and sat on the end of the bed, watching them.  
  
‘Ianto...’ Jack began, but his tears choked him.  
  
‘No Jack, don't.’ Ianto smiled softly but the effect was quickly ruined by the hacking cough that racked through his body, spraying blood onto his hand. Jack slid back up onto the bed and pulled Ianto up until he was sitting next to him.   
  
‘Not yet, Yan,’ he said softly, not quite ready for this to happen when yesterday it had still seemed like a far off event.  
  
‘I don't think either of us have control over that Jack,’ Ianto leaned against him, head tucking up in his the crook of his shoulder as strong arms wrapped around him.   
  
Jack sighed and buried his nose in Ianto's hair, sniffing him softly and smiling at the way the smell of coffee beans always seemed to be around him. It was as if Ianto just naturally smelled of just roasted coffee beans.   
  
‘I'm not ready, I don't think,’ Jack finally said, his voice soft and his arms tight.  
  
‘You're going to be a great dad for Arthur.’ Ianto tried to change the subject, subtly steering them both from the pain of having to talk about Ianto leaving. ‘Just remember to always feed him on time, and that midnight is a bad bedtime for a toddler. And that it would be good to get out of the Hub every once and a while and not to let Owen feed him those alien chocolates again and...’  
  
‘Oh, Ianto,’ Jack breathed, tilting Ianto's head back a bit and kissing him, tasting blood and not caring.  
  
When their lips gently parted, Ianto rested his head on Jack’s shoulder while Jack threaded their fingers together. ‘I want you to know...’ Jack said and sighed, ‘I love you. I don’t know how but I do, and this... I don’t want this to end.’  
  
‘I love you too.’ Ianto gasped in and shuddered. ‘Oh god...’  
  
A little hand rested on theirs and they looked down simultaneously to see Arthur kneeling between them. He looked up to them, at first frowning and then smiling. His expression was strange, like his eyes held all the understanding in the world within them.   
  
‘Arthur go,’ he said, gently.   
  
There was a sudden jolt, felt by both Ianto and Jack, and their joined hands began to tingle. Ianto moaned, pained, making Jack try to move to put his arm around him. But he found he couldn’t; their hands were stuck together.   
  
He looked at Arthur, with wide eyes. Their eyes met just as a bright white light began to swirl out of the toddler’s form, wrapping around him and creating a dazzling sun in the centre of the room. Slowly, the light consumed him until only his smiling face remained.  
  
‘Arthur...?’ Ianto gasped, weakly.  
  
‘Bye bye,’ Arthur said, and giggled. His clothing fell down in a pile where he had been kneeling.   
  
The light suddenly seemed to grip onto both Jack and Ianto, wrapping around them and penetrating their bodies. Jack gasped, feeling a familiar sensation of energy being forced inside him. It was the exact same feeling he always got coming back from the dead.  
  
As it finally started to fade away, Jack was left with the echoing sound of a toddler laughing in his ears and in his mind. And when the light was gone, Jack found himself staring at the toy dragon and empty clothes left between them; eyes wide open with sheer disbelief. He could hardly breathe for shock.  
  
Arthur was gone.  
  
Gone. Just like that.  
  
He suddenly became aware of the dead weight leaning in his arms and for a brief, terrible moment, he thought he’d lost Ianto too. But his breathing was even. In fact, Jack realised he looked almost well again; his cheeks were flushed pink and he looked less gaunt somehow overall. Jack kissed him on the forehead and held onto him, crying for loss and crying for relief.


	10. Chapter 10

It was slowly coming up on a week and a half since Jack had seen Ianto; since that rather eventful evening at Ianto's apartment, where, in the span of five minutes, Jack had found love, known heartache, lost his son and gained a lover.  
  
Not bad for a man who had staunchly avoided both for so long.  
  
Ianto had asked for some time off and Jack had granted it; an open ended agreement that Ianto would return once he had exorcised all of his demons that Arthur's disappearance had created.  
  
But ten days in, the Hub was a mess, the coffee was watered down, and they were all a bit jittery. Jack decided to take matters into his own hands.  
  
It made sense, since Arthur belonged to both of them, that the healing should involve both of them. They should help one another through this difficult time of having a child die, but no, not really (there were no “Sorry your kid spontaneously combusted into alien energy cards” from Hallmark).  
  
So ten days after Arthur left them, Jack packed a small bag and set out to find the small house that Ianto was hiding in. The journey was a short one but it took him out into a deserted landscape of patchwork green with the sea out on the horizon, only just visible through a dense mist of rainfall. Ianto was staying in a small former farmhouse Jack presumed belonged to his family, or perhaps a friend. It hadn’t really been explained. Ianto only called once to let Jack know he’d arrived there safely and, when Jack tried to get himself invited, to say that he needed to be alone for a while.  
  
Waiting and wondering had been awful for Jack. Ianto was never far from his thoughts. Nor was Arthur. Jack felt the loss of their little boy deeply in one way, but in another he couldn’t quite fathom, he didn’t. It wasn’t that he didn’t miss Arthur, or didn’t ache to hold him. It was just that, in some strange way, he felt the child wasn’t gone. Jack knew that the energy form Arthur became was now an integrated part of him, as if something that had been taken in the making of him had been put back. Arthur would always be with him. He was almost still a tangible presence.  
  
Jack knew that Ianto was taking it hard and he was getting worried he would never come back. Although he didn’t really want to intrude upon his privacy, Jack knew that there was only so long a man could isolate himself for grief before never being able to come back to the person he was before. Yes, he knew all about that.  
  
He expected Ianto to come outside as his car drew up but he didn’t. Jack ran from the car, through the shower, making a leap over a patch of mud onto the porch. He had to knock on the door a few times before he was heard.  
  
When finally Ianto opened the door, the resigned look on his face made Jack feel less nervous. Obviously Ianto had expected him to show up at some point. Jack stepped inside, allowed Ianto to take his greatcoat without a word while he removed his muddy shoes, and then followed him through into the living room, where a bright fire was blazing.  
  
Ianto went and sat at the dining table, staring out of the window at the falling rain, a red toy dragon on the surface in front of him and apparently staring out as well.  
  
Seeing Draig again gave Jack an unexpected pang of grief, right in his heart.  
  
‘I can’t go home,’ Ianto muttered, quietly, still not meeting his eyes. ‘Can’t bear having to get rid of all of his things.’  
  
Jack picked up the red dragon from Ianto's hands and turned it over in his own. ‘I know what you mean. I keep looking for him and finding he's not there.’ Jack sat down next to Ianto and pulled him close. ‘But how are you doing? Just a week ago you were close to death. Closer than that even, on the verge of...’  
  
‘I'm fine now, I'm just...’  
  
‘Missing him.’  
  
‘Yeah.’  
  
They both sat there in silence, Jack moving behind him to Ianto into his arms, kissing the top of his head.  
  
‘I meant everything I said, by the way,’ Jack finally said, wanting to break the soft noise of the rain on the roof.  
  
‘Hmm?’ Ianto turned to look at him, confused as he had been somewhere else in his mind.  
  
‘Everything we, uhh, we said? I meant all of that.’  
  
A soft smile touched Ianto’s lips. ‘I never doubted that.’ At last he turned in Jack’s arms to look him in the eye. ‘I meant it all too.’  
  
Jack’s possessive streak kicked right in as he looked into the depths of Ianto’s blue eyes. He knew right then and there that, even though one day he would have to go with the Doctor to get the answers he needed, he would always come back for this man. Jack had spent so much time in a waiting room, trying to make the years pass by quickly, he’d forgotten what life was about. He’d forgotten the simple pleasures; the joy that could be had just by connecting to another being. Realisation stinging him to the core, Jack kissed him strongly, passionately, trying to show him just how much he loved him.  
  
A hand curled around the back of his neck and fingers entwined with his hair. Ianto received his kiss and returned it with a sense of delicacy. When he pulled back, he rested his forehead against Jack’s, eyes closed.  
  
‘I don’t know how to feel... he was so much a part of us...’ Ianto whispered.  
  
‘He still is,’ Jack replied, with a sigh.  
  
‘That’s just it... It’s like he’s here. But he’s not. It’s so hard to explain...’  
  
‘Shhh, I know what you mean. I miss him but at the same time, I know that he hasn’t really gone.’ A slight chuckle escaped him. ‘He wanted it to be like this.’  
  
Blurry eyes opened and looked at him, questioningly, as Ianto finally leaned back in his arms. ‘What do you mean?’  
  
‘Don’t you get that sense? Like this was his purpose. He existed to bring us together. The moment we said how we felt to each other, he went. And he went happily. This is Arthur’s wish.’  
  
Ianto smiled, sadly. ‘I hadn’t really thought of it like that, but you’re right.’ Again he picked up the dragon toy and squeezed it in his hands. ‘Doesn’t stop it from hurting.’  
  
‘I know.’  
  
‘I always wanted to be a father. N-not so soon. Just... you know. It was... it was me.’  
  
Jack nodded, now running his fingers lightly through Ianto’s hair, trying to comfort the man clinging onto him.  
  
‘I suppose it wasn’t meant to be. I’ll never be a dad.’  
  
That made Jack jolt a little. ‘Never? Why?’  
  
‘Well... you know,’ Ianto replied, and looked at him frowning. ‘I love you. I just told you that.’  
  
‘What does that have to do with not having anymore children?’  
  
‘Uh...’ He looked at Jack incredulously. ‘Well, obviously... it’s not like _we_ can have another.’  
  
And suddenly Jack was faced with something of a dilemma. It was a moment of indecision which he knew would alter the entire course of his life, dependent on which direction he chose. But in the end there was just no contest anymore. He had never wanted to be tied down. He had avoided it at all costs. But now he knew the folly of that way of thinking. And Jack knew he couldn’t leave it at that. ‘Actually... that’s not strictly speaking true.’  
  
Ianto turned his head slowly, cocking his head and looking at Jack questioningly. ‘Well, I suppose there's always the choice of adoption...’ Ianto trailed off, thinking about it. ‘I mean, that is if you even want to have another kid,’ he continued, flushing a bit as he said so. ‘I know that originally you ahh, weren't too into the whole idea of Arthur.’ Ianto's voice remained soft and low, as if he was trying to keep from scaring away a small animal.  
  
‘I think actually being around Arthur changed that,’ Jack snorted. It was unlikely he could just go back to how he was so soon after being around and actually seeing and interacting with his son. That was, if he even wanted to go back. ‘I suppose there is always adoption yeah but what I meant...’  
  
‘You mean you'd actually think about having another kid?’ Ianto asked, a bit breathless and excited. ‘Well not having another but, adopting another,’ Ianto's voice was low as he leaned in and kissed Jack softly, one hand going to his brow. ‘It's a shame, I rather enjoyed seeing bits of you in Arthur. He had your smile, your eyes, I think he had your ears at least...’ Ianto kissed each body part as he mentioned them before sitting back. ‘It was almost like seeing you as a child.’  
  
‘Well, that's just it Ianto,’ Jack said, trying to get this out before he lost nerve or Ianto derailed him completely with what he was now doing with his tongue. ‘I mean, it's only if you want and uhh, well. What I mean is, if you really want to try and have another baby... we could.’  
  
The complete lack of comprehension in Ianto’s expression as he pulled back made him laugh out loud.  
  
‘Okay, you remember when we were in the park, and I confessed a few things to you? I told you I’m from the 51st century, right? Well, medical science is pretty amazing in my time, if you know the right places to go. Cosmetic surgery for example - just a painless injection of nanogenes and you’re done. You can even customise your organs if you want.’ He risked a glance at Ianto again, but there was still nothing in his eyes to indicate that he had figured out what he was trying to tell him. ‘When I was much much younger, I decided to start a family. I already told you I was a dad once before, right?’  
  
Ianto nodded, tentatively.  
  
‘Well that’s what I did. I got some... cosmetic surgery. Organ customisation,’ he said, and coughed. ‘What I’m trying to say is, if you want a baby... well, I have the facilities to make it happen.’  
  
Slowly, Ianto’s eyes sunk down and came to rest on Jack’s stomach. Then, suddenly, he leapt out of his arms, backing away from the table like he’d seen a ghost. ‘You mean... you uh... you can... uh...’  
  
Fixing him with his biggest, brightest grin, Jack just shrugged and leaned back in his chair.  
  
‘H-how...?’  
  
‘You want the gory details?’  
  
The shocked expression on Ianto’s face was utterly comical and Jack couldn’t help but carry on. He had expected this sort of reaction; it had to be quite a big deal for a 21st century man to comprehend that one day, it would be pretty easy and even a mundane process to allow men to carry children if they wished to.  
  
‘Well, you see this,’ he asked, pointing to his wristband, ‘I can use it to regulate certain physiological responses. Right now my, uh... childbearing facilities aren’t active. All I’d need to do is turn them on, allow my body to prepare itself for a few days, and there we have it. I can get pregnant.’  
  
Ianto stared at his wristband and then his stomach, wordlessly, mouth hanging open a little. ‘We can have a baby...’ he muttered to himself, finally. Slowly he returned to Jack’s arms, and sat beside him, constantly keeping his eyes fixed on his stomach. ‘I can’t believe it.’ At last he looked back up to Jack’s face. ‘What’s it like?’  
  
‘Carrying? Uh... strange. Hormonal. Painful sometimes. But... wonderful. So what do you think? About having a real one of our own, I mean.’  
  
‘It’s... it’s too much. T-too much to ask of you.’  
  
‘Too much to ask? Why do you think I got the surgery done in the first place?’ Jack tried to keep his voice soft; it was a lot for one man to take in, the fact that his _male_ lover had the organs for carrying a child. ‘This was something I decided a long time ago that I would want to be able to do. Besides, I can tell you this; the women in the 51st century are rather keen on men experiencing the pains of child birth.’ Jack grinned brightly and tugged Ianto closer to him. ‘What do you say?’  
  
‘Well, I mean, it's a lot to get one's mind around. You carrying a baby I mean...’  
  
‘We could always adopt of course,’ Jack interrupted, afraid now that perhaps the idea was a bit too radical, even for someone who had seen the immensities of the universe. ‘But, having a son, or ...even a daughter, with your eyes and hair. Your smile and...’ Jack broke off before he could get too woman-like. He hadn't even turned on the oestrogen levels yet.  
  
Ianto stared up at Jack, thinking about all the things he had just been told, things he had never even expected to come across in his life and how he was being offered something many couples would never have the chance to have. ‘Yes, let's have a baby.’ Ianto finally decided, nodding as if that finalized everything. ‘Let's do it.’  
  
Jack’s eyebrows rose up into his hairline and an unexpected pang of nervousness went through him. ‘R-really?’  
  
‘Yes. Yes, I can’t think of anything I want more.’ Ianto wrapped his arms around him and kissed him. When he pulled back, his cheeks flushed a little. ‘I mean, we could never replace Arthur. I know that. But the thought of having a baby...’ he peppered him with little kisses between each few words, ‘with you... it’s just... incredible.’  
  
‘Alright then, I guess all that remains is to start the process going.’ Jack gave him a last kiss and typed a code into his wristband. It made a little beep of confirmation and he smiled at Ianto. ‘Done.’  
  
‘Now what?’ Ianto asked, breathlessly.  
  
‘Now we need to wait for at least forty eight hours while things get going. We’ll know if it’s working if I get the urge to stop eating entirely the whole time. During the first twenty four hours we can always stop it if you change your mind and I’ll go back to normal. After that, there’s no going back. Finally, when my body’s ready, the biological imperative will take me over and I’ll become a horny bastard. That’ll be your clue to screw me senseless as many times as you can until we collapse from exhaustion.’ He waggled his eyebrows.  
  
Ianto shifted a little, putting his arm across his crotch, blushing. Jack found it irresistibly cute and had to kiss him again to communicate this fact.  
  
‘Alright, I need to call the Hub and let the gang know we’ll be staying here for a few more days.’ Jack got to his feet and went to find the phone.  
  
As he reached the threshold of the door, he looked back for a moment and smiled at the faintly simpering, dazed expression now stuck on Ianto’s face as he looked out at the rain.  
  
Jack knew he’d made the right choice.  
  
*  
  
A faint sensation of panic hit Jack when he woke up to find himself alone and came to realise that Ianto wasn’t anywhere to be found in the house. His biological drives were humming with need. It was nearly time. The tingling feeling inside was becoming unbearable and his body temperature was definitely elevated. He knew he had an hour at the very most, if that, before the desire to mate took him over.  
  
He couldn’t be left alone now. Jack didn’t know what he’d do.  
  
Then Ianto returned in his car, hiding some bags of shopping, and he started to calm down. Only when Ianto had awkwardly hidden away whatever he’d bought and returned to wrap his arms around him did Jack relax down a little.  
  
It was alright. Ianto was there. He wasn’t going to be alone when it hit. Things were fine.  
  
Jack lounged on the couch, his head in Ianto's lap, both of them just looking out the window at the rain - still raining – enjoying the companionship.  
  
‘I was thinking,’ Ianto started, interrupting the soft silence.  
  
‘Yeah?’  
  
‘How will we know exactly?’  
  
‘Know what?’  
  
‘That the, you know, “biological imperative” you talked about before has hit? You're _always_ a horny bastard.’ Ianto looked down at Jack with as serious a face as he could muster before breaking out into a wide grin.  
  
‘Hey!’ Jack tackled him, biting his neck as his fingers found sensitive ticklish spots and abused them.  
  
Suddenly, Jack could feel a flush of heat shoot through him, every time Ianto touched him tingled and he had a strong urge to push against Ianto and just _move_.  
  
‘Uh Ianto?’ he said, voice shaking from desire.  
  
‘Yeah?’ Ianto smiled, a hand running through Jack's hair as he smiled and relaxed back on the couch.  
  
‘Fuck me. Now,’ Jack growled, tearing at Ianto's shirt and kissing him hard.  
  
‘Whoa Jack, slow down...’  
  
‘Can’t...’ he gasped, rutting against him, ruining his clothes as he tore at them with his fingers.  
  
‘Hold on, just...’ Ianto had his breath drawn out of him with a fierce kiss. ‘Jack give me a minute or two. I need to do something first...’  
  
The effort to stop made Jack shake from head to foot. ‘Hurry... I can’t stop myself...’  
  
Ianto nodded and ran to the bedroom, closing the door behind him. Jack grasped onto the edges of the couch and then bit into one of them, trying to resist the need to go after Ianto. He only managed it for a minute or two before his resolve faded and he staggered for the bedroom.  
  
The room was dark, the curtains closed and the sunlight shuttered out. There were white candles on the bedside table, the mantelpiece, the dresser and on top of the wardrobe. The faint smell of strawberries hung in the air. Ianto had made the bed neatly and dropped a bottle of lube on it. Ianto turned as he entered, a little startled at being interrupted in the middle of placing a bowl of strawberries and some chocolate sauce on the beside table. Then he smiled, shyly.  
  
Surprise momentarily overtook Jack. ‘Wh... what’s all this?’  
  
‘I wanted it to be, you know, romantic. This is... not too sappy I hope? I wasn’t sure. I just...’  
  
Jack’s feet moved of their own volition and suddenly he was wrapped around him, kissing him to oblivion, aching to feel skin on skin too much to care that Ianto would never be able to wear these clothes again, he had torn them off so completely. Ianto took a little more care in undressing him but it was still pretty fast.  
  
The moment they were both completely naked, Jack practically threw Ianto onto the bed and launched himself onto him, rolling them over all over the place. Jack groaned and tried to arch up off the bed and closer to Ianto, wanting to feel skin on skin as much as possible. ‘Ianto, please. I need...’ he begged softly, his entire body was on fire.  
  
‘Okay, I can...’ Ianto rolled them over, straddling Jack's legs and trying to keep the bucking man down. He slid down his body, quickly taking Jack's cock in his mouth and sucking hard.  
  
‘Fuck, yes!’ Jack moaned, hips thrusting and back arching to drive his cock further in.  
  
Groaning around the flesh in his mouth, Ianto had to concentrate on breathing, remembering that he had to inhale through his nose as he felt Jack's cock slide down the back of his throat.  
  
It didn't take much more for Jack to reach his climax, gripping Ianto's hair and shouting loudly as he came down his throat.  
  
‘God yeah,’ he panted, finally calming down enough to relax against the bed.  
  
‘Well, did that help?’  
  
‘A bit yeah,’ Jack smirked and pulled Ianto up to kiss him. ‘Took the edge off but... oh man, it’s so strong. I’d forgotten what this feels like.’ He put a hand on his stomach. ‘Tingles so much, like my insides are on fire and all the sparks going to my brain are screaming at me to get good and fucked. Now now now, you know?’  
  
‘And this differs from how you normally are, how?’  
  
Jack chuckled. ‘Fair point. Not that _you’ve_ had a chance to find out properly yet.’  
  
‘True. Which is exactly why I wanted to take this a little slower and, you know, to make it special.’ Ianto earned himself a long, deep kiss for that sentiment.  
  
‘This would be special however we do it,’ Jack muttered into his ear. ‘You and me, it was an accident waiting to happen.’  
  
‘Nice way of putting it,’ Ianto chuckled. He reached over and picked up the bottle of lube he had gone out to buy specially for the occasion. ‘Ready for more?’  
  
‘I thought you’d never ask.’ Jack trembled as Ianto ran his fingers down the length of his torso, slowly crawling backwards on the bed, drawing a pillow along with him as he went. He pushed it under Jack’s backside, making sure he would be completely comfortable, and started to warm some of the lube on his hands.  
  
‘No need to use too much, by the way,’ Jack said.  
  
‘Okay.’ He gently rubbed the lube around Jack’s opening and slowly pressed inside, smiling at the appreciative moan.  
  
‘More...’ Jack groaned.  
  
‘Patience love.’ Ianto was determined to take his time, even though he knew from past experience how maddening it could be from the other end.  
  
Finger by finger, he opened Jack up and prepared him. By the time he was ready to take it to the next stage, Jack was trembling from head to toe, apparently trying to hold back the urge to grab him and get things moving much faster. He wiped the last of it on his achingly hard cock and lined himself up, leaning over to kiss Jack as he did. ‘Ready?’  
  
‘More than.’  
  
Ianto hissed as he slid inside, perhaps a little faster than he would have liked, and managed to bury himself right up to the hilt. Jack sighed happily and started grinning. ‘That’s the stuff. Now, fuck me Ianto. Please...’  
  
The heat and pressure around Ianto's cock was enough to drive him mad, it was almost enough to send him over the edge much sooner than he wanted and he had to step back and catch his breath before he could begin to move.  
  
‘God Ianto, I need to feel you move faster,’ Jack demanded, coming up off of the mattress to try and push Ianto further into him.  
  
‘Give me a moment,’ Ianto growled back, pausing before he shoved his hips forward, smirking and satisfied to hear Jack's broken moan.  
  
Taking a deep breath, Ianto began moving his hips, pistoning them against Jack's body, fucking him nice and hard. Part of him wanted to take this slow, to make it last, but the way Jack was still writhing and moaning beneath him let Ianto know that it wasn't going to last very long at all.  
  
‘That's it, that's just it Ianto,’ Jack groaned, mumbling words over and over as he clung onto Ianto and pushed against him.  
  
Ianto shuddered as he felt Jack clamping down around him, watching in fascination as he came again into his hand, crying out Ianto's name as he did so.  
  
‘Fuck, Jack,’ Ianto cried, surging forward to catch Jack's lips in a hot kiss as he came inside him.  
  
The blissful expression on Jack’s face in the moments after it all ended would be fixed into Ianto’s memory forever. He titled his head back, eyes closed, still writhing a little and jerking in tiny moments and they both fought to catch their breath.  
  
‘Yes,’ he gasped, ‘I feel it... I feel it... oh god Ianto...’  
  
‘What do you feel, Jack?’  
  
‘Uh... chemical changes...’ Jack reached for him and clung on tightly. ‘H-hold me. Hold me please. Need to ride this out.’  
  
Ianto rolled Jack over and into his arms, holding onto him as tight as he could. After a few tense moments, Jack seemed to calm down.  
  
‘That’s better,’ he mumbled. ‘Didn’t expect such a... a rush. That was intense.’ He turned his head aside to be able to see Ianto. ‘So... how long until you can go again?’ he asked with a dirty leer.  
  
‘Give me five,’ Ianto said, gasping for breath and then laughing. ‘Or maybe ten.’  
  
‘We have all day. And all night.’ He leaned over to press his lips to Ianto’s ear. ‘And many years after that.’  
  
Ianto smiled, his heart leaping at that whispered promise. ‘I love you, you know.’  
  
‘Yeah, and I love you back. What do you think of that, Ianto Jones?’  
  
‘I’m a little amazed that we got this far.’ Ianto pressed a hand to Jack’s check and gently ran his fingers through his hair. ‘We have Arthur to thank for all of this. For how we feel. For how well we know each other. For this little miracle waiting in the wings. All of it.’  
  
Jack nodded, stroking his fingers through Ianto’s hair. ‘And that’s why we’ll never forget him.’  
  
‘Right.’  
  
Their eyes met and they knew exactly what each other was thinking. The echo of a toddler’s gleeful giggling seemed to pass between them and it made them both gasp and then laugh.  
  
No, Arthur was not gone. Nor was he forgotten. He would be with them always in every act of care and every act of love, ensuring that their bond that would never be broken.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I hope you all enjoyed this ride! But wait, it doesn't need to end here... if you want to read more, check out our sequel, [The Heir to Caerleon](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29354907/chapters/72106173).


End file.
